The next round of technological change needs to be driven by more than just a desire for a neat gadget, a co-founder of National Public Radio told an audience Thursday at Emporia State University.
Robert Mott, who graduated from ESU in the 1940s after returning from World War II, spoke at length on the history of communications technology from the telegraph to the beginning of the computer networks. Most of it, he said, had been inventor-driven rather than aimed at any specific end.
“I’ll ask this: Would science be better off if the humanists — the social scientists, the artists, the writers and so on — tell the scientists and engineers what they should create to solve problems?” Mott said. “Right now, the technicians and engineers have the tendency to go into the lab and come up with whatever they bloody well please. ... Should the humanists tell the scientists what to do to make our world a better place to live?”
Mott was the executive director of National Educational Radio when he helped establish its successor, National Public Radio, in 1970. Shortly after that, he jumped to the television side of the public airwaves, becoming director of station relations for the Public Broadcasting Service.
Overall, Mott estimated, he’s held about a dozen jobs in 16 different locations as he moved from print to radio to television to satellite broadcasting.
“My wife explains this by saying I couldn’t hold a steady job,” he said to chuckles from the audience.
He expressed some concern about the way the nation’s communications channels have mostly narrowed down to six conglomerates. He also felt public broadcasting was on steady ground for the foreseeable future, even though opponents have tried to threaten its funding since the Nixon administration.
“Don’t worry — it’s not going to happen,” he said. “All the stations have to do is unleash a few e-mails and the citizenry rises up, smites the Republicans and they back off.”
He included some advice for graduating students, including basics such as being inquisitive, speaking clearly and giving back to society. He also warned them to be ready for even bigger technological changes down the road.
“The last 25 years in technology has just been the warmup,” he said. “The big game is yet to follow.”