Faculty members discuss ideal 21st century

Three University faculty members presented their opinions on working to achieve a Utopian society in the 21st century during a panel discussion Wednesday night. "The Industrial Revolution, being a very unsustainable demand, taught us how to . . . borrow from the future -- and that's what we have to unlearn before we create any form of Utopia," Engineering Systems Professor Dan Tencer said. Ira Harkavy, vice dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, agreed, saying there is a need for "schools that teach creative problem solving [and] we're not doing that . . . we're in a real society crisis." Nevertheless, Harkavy said that an ideal community "should be achievable and can be worked towards." According to Tencer, reaching the ideal would require "a different method of measuring prosperity than [gross national produce] per capita." "In order to be prosperous, you have to consume," Tencer said. "Our bookkeeping system says that more has to be better than less. We've got an oxymoron policy of sustainable growth." Tencer said he thinks humans must also rethink their current practices. "We have to understand the laws of nature, we have to understand the constraints that our society must live in. Thinking that there are no limits to growth or limits to the capacity of the environment is absolutely crazy," he said. Harkavy emphasized the importance of the human spirit in a technically oriented world. "There is no deus ex machina . . . humans must take their visions and work with them," he said. "No matter how high a technology you develop, you must have face-to-face human interactions." Mark Shanaman, who teaches a freshman seminar on Utopian literature, said he had trouble accepting the realization of a Utopian society since "as a literary form, the Utopia has always been inaccessible." "What is the purpose in setting up this Utopia when you are artificially solving the problem -- what are people getting out of the texts if they [present] impossible solutions?" Shanaman said. He said his class has also been critical of the societies they are studying. "Everybody has been tearing the Utopias down and exposing their flaws -- there's either an act of God or they're just set up." Vu Do, an Engineering freshman and STW member, said he found the program "very meaningful in purpose [but] whether or not [Utopia] comes true depends on human interactions." That a Utopia is possible "is mere fiction -- there's no way that we're near it," he added. "The holistic way of looking at things is an important idea," College junior Bob Jones said. "We can achieve [Utopia] if we wanted to, but only with mankind working together."

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