Friday, October 22, 2004

Thank you, Foresight


The Foresight Institute honored me tonight with its 2004 Prize in Communication.

Here's the text of my acceptance speech, which was very well-received. Some of the references are inside-nano-baseball jokes. I'll add links if there's time later:

"My fellow Drexlerians … pseudo-pundits … panderers … cranks … crackpots … and other denizens of our moms' basements …

"Thank you very much for honoring me with what my 13-year-old daughter calls the "Dork of the Year" award.

"She, and everybody else, tells me I'm obsessed with nanotechnology. Guilty. But I look at it much differently than most of you in the room. I'm not obsessed with it as a technology, as a science, as a means of saving or destroying the world, or making a quick buck, or gathering government grants, plotting world domination. That's not what I do. Nanotechnology to me is, pure and simple, a … great … story. It's a story that contains, within it, many chapters large and small. My God, it's a story of grinches and greed, it's a story of men and women with vision, it's a story about humankind's relationship with the world around, it's a story mushing molecular objects together like, in the words of a great nanoscientist, "boys and girls in love."

"I'm obsessed with nanotechnology in the same way that I become obsessed with every single facet of any story I cover. It's the only way I know how to write something with true understanding. In a previous journalism life, I wrote about the Mideast peace process. When I had the chance to dive into nanotechnology, I thanked God for the chance to cover science, rather than war and peace – where things are clear-cut, where it either is, or it ain't, and there really can't be much argument over it.

"Boy was I wrong. Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat? They're like those overpolite cartoon chipmunks compared with Drexler and Smalley. My goodness, you are a great story.

"Here's where I ran into trouble, though. As a journalist, I just can't help it. I seek out the minority opinion, those who march on the wrong foot – as I did when I was in the high school marching band – those who say that nanotech is going in the wrong direction, or has been hijacked by other interests. You go where the story takes you. My cranky, old journalism professor – of the old school, with the ink-stained fingers, is always the voice in the back of my mind. "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

"Or, perhaps my motivation is much less lofty. I don't know. You know. If it bleeds it leads.

"So, I led … and I bled. And I have … no … regrets.

"I want to thank everybody at the Foresight Institute for this great honor, But, and I hope you will take this in the spirit with which you have given me this honor, you need to remember that I am not your friend. It's just a matter of time before I write something that does not please you, if I haven't already. When I do, I hope you'll remember that I am only displaying the kind of independence that you all have encouraged in me by honoring me with this prestigious communications award.

"Thank you."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Short and sweet and to the point. Nano acceptance speeches are where it's at. What a treat.

Sissy Willis
http://sisu.typepad.com

AShalleck said...

Howard...well deserved. As a committed proponent of nanotechnology and one willing to go out on a limb with your opinion, you earned this one.
We all benefit from your truths.
alan shalleck
nanoclarity

AShalleck said...

Howard...well deserved. As a committed proponent of nanotechnology and one willing to go out on a limb with your opinion, you earned this one.
We all benefit from your truths.
alan shalleck
nanoclarity
www.nanoclarity.com

AShalleck said...

Howard ... well deserved. Your belief in nanotechnology and your willingness to tell its truths benefit us all.

Alan Shalleck
NanoClarity
www.nanoclarity.com

Anonymous said...

Very well spoken, Howard. Because of how you embrace the story of nanotech, and because of how you dork out so publicly, you open up this story to other writers and a host of semi-normal nonscientific minds. This lets us at least observe a way too complicated and way too important molecular-scale revolution, something we lay people should be at least observing. Now back to that question of military technology for ground vehicle systems....

Howard Lovy said...

Hmmm. Now, just who are you, Anonymous? And who sent you? Who are you working for? And how do you know so much? The "smart dust" must have tracked me here. ...

Anonymous said...

Boy, Howard, you sure do ask a lot of questions. What are you, some kind of journalist or something? I did like the question you asked that cryogenics client at the conference ("Are you nuts? Please give me your realistic assessment." or something like that.) (http://nanotech2004.thenewatlantis.com/) Anyway congratulations again on the Dork of the Year Award, richly deserved and graciously accepted.