Insatiable Curiosity

Curiosity is the main driving force behind scientific activity. Scientific curiosityinsatiable in its explorations does not know what it will find or where it will lead. Scienceneeds autonomy to cultivate this kind of untrammeled curiosity; innovation however responds to theneeds and desires of society. Innovation argues influential European science studies scholar HelgaNowotny tames the passion of science harnessing it to produce deliverables. Sciencebrings uncertainties; innovation successfully copes with them. Society calls for both the passionfor knowledge and its taming. This ambivalence Nowotny contends is an inevitable result ofmodernity. In Insatiable Curiosity Nowotny explores the strands of the often unexpectedintertwining of science and technology and society. Uncertainty arises she writes from anoversupply of knowledge. The quest for innovation is society's response to the uncertainties thatcome with scientific and technological achievement. Our dilemma is how to balance the immense butunpredictable potential of science and technology with our acknowledgement that not everything thatcan be done should be done. We can escape the old polarities of utopias and dystopias writesNowotny by accepting our ambivalence--as a legacy of modernism and a positive culturalresource.