Roundtable Wrap-Up: RT 6-Tuesday

To begin rountable 6, each person introduced themselves and then gave their reason for coming to the conference. We then moved into a discussion of Ethan Zuckerman’s Opening Address. The delegates found Zuckerman’s comments to be a great introduction for the conference. Moderator Rishi Shah then discussed how he was going to run the roundtable and together, the delegates all defined important terms related to roundtable 6. For the remainder of the roundtable, Rishi decided to let the delegates discuss anything and everything that related to technology and the military in hopes of breaking the ice.

One of the most interesting issues discussed was the government’s role in the global technology market. Is it the government’s responsibility to provide subsidies to certain industries? Should the government provide money to private companies for research and development? The delegates concluded that the government can’t drive the economy and that ultimately the products do. Government intervention only increases the role of lobbyists and forces the U.S. to use technology that might not be in its best interest. Another key topic discussed was the line between the civilian and military worlds. As the world as become more globalized and new technologies have been created, the line separating the two institutions has become blurred. While the military can be used for many different operations, the military only has so much utility. Additionally, technology can on get us so far. America must continue to rely on its private sector to produce the technologies of the future. Yes, the military will discover innovations like GPS, but without the private sector, these innovations have a limited use.