PENING STATEMENT

cretary Connor: Thank you, Dr. Hollomon. Honed guests, ladies and gentlemen: I am pleased to elcome all of you to this symposium on technology d world trade. Many of you have come a great stance to participate in this dialogue. I am nfident that when we are finished our efforts will repaid with a clearer view of the common probms we face in the global exchange of goods, serves, commodities, knowledge, attitudes, and ideas.

At the dedication of these magnificent facilities sterday, President Johnson sent a special message greeting. He noted that the symposium would ben here today and expressed his confidence that e ideas emerging from this symposium will provide fresh insight into the task of creating a life of ›undance for people everywhere. Technology and orld trade are vital elements in the economic life all nations in the shrinking world and accelerating nes of today.

The National Bureau of Standards and
the Department of Commerce

This symposium is especially appropriate at this me, coinciding with a momentous event in the his›ry of the National Bureau of Standards. The Deartment of Commerce is charged with helping reate those conditions which will encourage and imulate the growth of the national economy. The [ational Bureau of Standards is a charter member f the Commerce Department, having joined us 'hen the department was established more than half century ago. NBS is also the nation's measurement boratory, our spokesman in the international lanuage of science, a center of research, technology, nd its application.

The dedication of these new laboratories occurs Is the Bureau is placing increased emphasis on sevral fruitful areas of cooperation with American usiness and industry. International standardization f industrial products, the development of performnce criteria for technological goods and services, ethods for measuring the performance of entire ystems, and the dissemination of scientific data and

technical information-these activities all have great relevancy to international trade.

From the earliest days of its planning, I have sensed an air of excitement about this particular symposium. For this reason, I don't want to delay your exchange of ideas and opinions for one minute longer than necessary. In this setting, sequestered from the day-to-day considerations of immediate problems, perhaps we can suspend the old dogmas and construct an edifice of new ideas, beginning from the ground up. I would like to take a few minutes at the beginning to examine with you some of the foundation stones on which your dialogue can be based. These fundamental notions are axiomatic to the specialist. To a nonspecialist, such as myself, they sometimes provoke more questions than they provide answers.

Purposes of the Symposium

This symposium has three purposes: First, to look at the impact of technology upon international trade and investment. Second, to outline a world environment which will encourage more widespread use of technology. And, third, to seek new ways for technology and trade to promote economic develop

ment.

These objectives combine to create a formidable challenge. Fortunately, you and your speakers are admirably qualified to come up with constructive

answers.

Fortunately, our constitution created a union of states and precluded any attempts to raise trade barriers between one state and another within the United States. As a result, this early common market grew into a mass market with economies of scale which contributed immensely to our economic growth and our technological development.

In spite of this favorable environment, however, we have not yet achieved a nationwide parity in standards of living or in the level of technological development. The Appalachian region of America stands in stark contrast to areas on the East and West Coasts, both economically and technologically.

Through our system of agricultural colleges, research stations and farm specialists scattered throughout the nation, the dissemination of the latest agricultural technology has become a successful reality in this country. We have not yet been so successful in the manufacturing and service sectors of our economy. Studies conducted by the Commerce Department show that there is a wide area of difference, a wide range of difference, between the most efficient and the least efficient plants in any given industry. This pattern exists regardless of the size of the plant, and this condition is true whether it is a labor intensive industry or a high technology industry. In some industries, the value added per employee in the most efficient plants is five hundred percent above the amount for the least efficient plants.

Think of the competitive advantage this offers the top firms. Or on the other hand, think of the waste in human and material resources among the lowest firms. These efficiency gaps include many components management skills, availability of capital, marketing know-how, participation in world trade, condition of plant and equipment, flexibility of labor and management, ability to utilize the latest technology, and many, many others.

Our economists estimate that if all companies in all industries followed the most advanced practices and techniques of the most efficient companies, the growth in national productivity would greatly exceed the growth rate of recent years. Practically speaking, this may be expecting too much, but it is clear that there exists a great potential for improvement.

Opportunities for Better World Use
for Technology

Looking at the broad problems of technology and trade from a global point of view, what needs to be done? More to the point, what can be done?

First, there are some institutional goals we coul work toward. These include such things as greater participation by all countries in the development of international standards for industrial products, ar accelerated and more broadly based movement to ward some form of international patent cooperation. an unfettered flow of capital among nations with du provision made for special circumstances and special cases, the reduction and elimination of barriers to trade on a fair and reciprocal basis, wider availabil ity and movement of technology among nations.

Second, we need to change our approach to the fact that there are differing levels of technology in various fields among the nations of the world. Ou thoughts and actions should not be directed toward compensating for these these differences artificially Rather we should try to assure that each nation has access to the particular technology most appropriat to its own goals as defined by that nation. In this way, trade and economic growth will both be en hanced.

Third, we need to know more about the processes of technology, trade and economic growth, how they interact, why a certain formula succeeds for one country and fails in another. Toward this end, the United States has joined with the member nations of the OECD in a major study of the processes b which nations are able to develop and explo science and technology for the attainment of eco nomic and other national goals.

The results of this study should be useful to a nations and applicable to all levels of development.

Can these objectives be realized? I don't know o any substantive reason why they cannot, if we have the will to succeed and a willingness to cooperate The United States stands ready to join with all othe countries in efforts to disseminate and use the knowledge of mankind for the benefit of mankind.

ovember 16, 1966

r. Hollomon: I should now like to introduce to u Dr. Frederick Seitz, the President of the NationAcademy of Sciences, who will be the chairman r this morning's session.

r. Seitz: Thank you, Dr. Hollomon. Our session eals with technology in world trade, as has been ade clear. I would like to say a few words of introiction about both.

ve.

Technology in Human History

Man is innately a technologist-inherently invenThis characteristic is part of his birthright nd is linked intimately with the constitution of his enes. The long road of evolution of our species ver the past million years is in fact littered with ne products of our inventive technology. There is uch direct evidence for the crude tools of stone ur forebears have produced and much indirect vidence for those made of wood and bone.

When our species emerged about 50,000 years go with its present genetic make-up, more sophistiated devices appeared, including arrows, spears, xes, hooks, nets, and intricately woven objects. The basic genetic equipment which made us techologists is well known. This includes manual dexerity, stereoscopic vision and the ability to reason. Armed with these attributes and the willingness to ocus attention on issues of immediate practical mportance, our antecedents moved ahead, first as unters and food-gatherers and then, about 10,000 'ears ago, as agronomists. Five thousand years ago ve became masters of the great river valleys which ielded such riches that it became possible to develop >rofessional specialization, including most of the ields of modern engineering.

Between one thousand and fifteen hundred years igo those of our ancestors living in Northern Europe earned to cultivate the soils of the temperate climate and to develop the technology associated with that climate. This advance in technology, in turn, made the urban revolution possible in northern latitudes. Without such a revolution the settling of North America would have been of little meaning to man

kind, except for the access the discoverers might have had to the natural raw materials of the new land.

Science Revolutionizes Classical Technology About 500 years ago, the earnest, practical philosophers of Western Europe conceived of an entirely new basis for technology. Inspired by access to the manuscripts of Greek science, they conceived of establishing a new form of technology which would extend well beyond the scope of classical technology and which would rest upon investigations of the basic laws of nature. In brief, they recast ancient science into a new form and evolved what we now call modern science-a process designed to gain knowledge of nature characterized by the careful interplay of observation and theory. It took time for the dream of these philosophers to be realized. However, starting about 170 years ago with the dawn of the age of modern chemistry-a product of the scientific method-a great scientific revolution in technology was set into motion. It is easy to show that by the present time technology would have been running out of momentum if it did not have the contributions of science. By the end of this century the methods of classical technology would have proved to be stagnant.

The Impact of Trade on Technology

Historically, as Secretary Connor pointed out so eloquently, the evolution of technology has been very closely coupled with the development of trade. Once man became a trading animal, as he did very early at least 10,000 years ago he began to trade technology along with material objects. This not only stimulated his own process of technical innovation, but also made him aware of the importance to his own welfare of the acquisition of alien methods of technology. The interchange of technology has in fact been as important a component of trade as the interchange of material products. Trade not only brought British tin to the Mediterranean, but stimulated the entire technology of producing tin alloys. The trade with China, initiated by the Chi

nese, not only brought Chinese textiles and ceramics to the West, but stimulated a host of parallel developments in the corresponding fields of technology in the Mediterranean. Our own trade with Europe and Asia accelerated our national development not only through the import of materials, but also by stimulating our own technology. Our own technological advances have, in turn, had a very deep influence on the parts of the world with which we trade.

Technology based upon science developed very slowly in our country. It was, in fact, only in this century that we accepted broad responsibility for generating science-based technology. Earlier in our history we were in the main acquirers of products or of licenses stemming from science-based technology generated elsewhere. Interestingly enough,

the stimulus for the reform came less from scientific scholars than from the leaders of industry who desired to make their products competitive throughout the world. In fact, the establishment of the great industrial laboratories, such as those of the General Electric Company, the Bell Telephone Company, and du Pont, near the turn of the century can be regarded to represent the dawn of a genuinely new era in our own technological history.

If one tries to characterize the various phases in our history of creative technology, one can perhaps say that our period of innovation in the pattern of classical technology reached its climax in the era of Thomas Edison. The revolution associated with the computer is the first major product of our creative association with science-based technology.

Dr. Seitz: With this background of historical observations on man's relationships with technology and trade, I would like to introduce our next speaker on the morning session, Dr. Marshall McLuhan. Dr. McLuhan is Director of the Center for Culture and Technology of the University of Toronto, Canada.

Dr. McLuhan: Mr. Secretary and ladies and gentlemen: The environment you have provided for us makes an occasion to relate to you one of our Canadian cultural products-French-Canadian grievance humor. Have you ever noticed that good jokes tend to record grievances? The grievances of the FrenchCanadians have been much related to the electronic age, in which they feel a new need for separation and decentralism, and some of the stories that go with that are of this grievance type.

A mouse is being pursued around the house by the cat and finally discovers a hole in the wall where it hides. And then all is silent until a kind of bowwow, arf, arf, sound is heard. The mouse figures the house dog has come along, scared the cat away, and ventures out. The cat grabs it and as the cat chews the mouse down, it says, "You know, it pays to be bilingual."

Another Canadian contribution to this grievance humor is the sign that hangs over a junkyard in Toronto which reads, "Help beautify junkyards. Throw something lovely away today."

It is a very rich observation.

There are quite a lot of these grievance stories, which are rather instructive, but I am going to venture a few themes here in relation to our very rich subject of technology and world trade.

The New Environment for Man

I suppose one could simply sum the whole thing up and say that any economy is an information pool and, under electronic conditions, the world is a single information pool; therefore, there can and must be just one economy. As the world becomes a total information pool, and therefore simultaneous, the natural tendency is for all the older patterns and barriers and structures to be swept aside.

I think one might safely predict, for example, that with the coming of the satellite environment for our planet, the planet is no longer the human habitat.

The planet is now the content of a man-made environment of electric information and satellite information. When the planet itself goes inside a manmade environment, the planet becomes as it were, an old nose cone, an art form. Every time a new