Yervant
Terzian opened his Founders Day remarks by noting some less-than-accurate predictions from
the past:
— 100 years ago, Charles Duell, commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents, said,
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
— About the same time, Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society, said,
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
— In 1932, Albert Einstein said, “There is not the slightest indication that
nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.”
— In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said, “I think there is a world market
for maybe five computers.”
Terzian, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences and chairman of the
Astronomy Department at Cornell University, then cautiously offered “some possible
developments to cheer us up:”
— Biotechnology and genetic engineering will allow fast medical diagnostics and
therapy and will make life longer and more comfortable.
— Information transfer through the Internet and artificial communication satellites
will unite the entire globe.
— Energy from nuclear fusion slowly will dominate.
— It will be possible to exercise limited climate control on the scale of cities.
— The most exciting event will probably be that we may make contact with an
extraterrestrial, intelligent, communicative civilization.
But those possibles can happen, he suggested, only if education becomes our highest
priority. “We have arrived at the doorstep of a new century largely unprepared to
educate and lead six billion people, and double that number in fifty years,” he said.
Terzian, whose work combines research (he has long been associated with the Arecibo
Observatory in Puerto Rico) and teaching, received an honorary doctor of science degree
from Union.
President Roger Hull paid tribute to Terzian's research in such areas as the radio
properties of galaxies and radio emissions from planetary nebulae; the president also
noted Terzian's commitment to teaching and his leadership of such activities as the Pew
Science Education Program, which makes grants to support undergraduate science education.
“It is fitting that in a year in which Union opens its own observatory and
high-technology classroom building, we honor one of this country's most distinguished
astronomers and teachers of science,” President Hull said.
Terzian said his visions of the twenty-first century, and the very real miracles of the
twentieth century, such as nuclear energy, antibiotics, and instant communications, are
based on science and technology. We have an increasing understanding that nature and the
universe behave according to specific rules, he said, and that applying this knowledge can
provide a comfortable and safe human existence.
Yet, he continued, society as a whole remains “mostly ignorant” about the
sciences. That is why education must be our highest priority in the new millennium, he
said.
“I want to tell you that the twenty-first century will be the happiest, most
peaceful, most productive, and most beautiful period of human history,” he said.
“For a small percentage of people, this may be true. But it will be very different
for the majority of humans who will have to struggle hard to just survive. The education
of the masses will be very slow and will hinder efforts to improve the quality of
life.”
The most important asset for the next century, he said, will be knowledge. Prosperity
and a safe future depend on an educated public, and that won't happen unless we all get
involved.
“There are no quick fixes,” he said. “We need to make learning an
ongoing, enjoyable life process. In this, all disciplines must cooperate and contribute.
Hope and prayers alone will not solve our problems, but unselfish, intelligent actions and
hard work may do so.”