In chapter 4 weíve seen that, despite social pressure to the contrary, many individuals have been willing to take on personal responsibility for public problems ranging from the seemingly trivial to the global. While the courageous acts weíve been examining are the acts of individuals, itís important that we see those individual acts of heroism in a larger context. Indeed, they are an integral part of perhaps the most powerful force on earth: an idea whose time has come.

Solving Big Problems

In examining some of the problems that plague the world-hunger, overpopulation, war, to name a few-we often look to technology for solutions. Better crop strains, we think, will end the ages-old tragedy of starvation. Better contraceptive techniques will stop the ticking of the population bomb. Couldnít war be prevented if only we had weapons that every were too terrible to ever use? Many people have believed these things in the past, and many still do. Yet despite major breakthroughs on each of these fronts, the problems persist. 

Impressive developments in the "green revolution" have greatly increased agricultural productivity on the planet, yet 13 to 18 million people still die of hunger each year. The condom did not end the population explosion; neither did the diaphragm, birth control pills, vasectomies, or any of the other birth control methods that have been developed and improved on over the years. By the same token, there were those who once believed that the tank was so horrible an engine of war that nations would never fight again. They were wrong. So were those who believed the machine gun was to terrible a weapon to be used. Nor have the horrors of thermonuclear war kept nations at peace. In sum, technology has not saved us the way people have hoped it would.