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Mapping Wild Cards

Inspired by: foresight/futures » The Indian Ocean as New Nexus for Science

version: 1 / created: 2010-10-13
id: #991 / version id: #991
mode: VIEW

Originally submitted by: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
List of all contributors by versions (mouse over)
Last changed by: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
WI-WE status:
submitted unpublished

Source of inspiration

Foresight/Futures work (e.g. EFP, Millennium Project, WFS, WFSF, UK Sigma Scan)

The source of the Wild Card is

UK Delta Scan; Signtific (sponsored by National Academy of Sciences); interviews with scientists in Asia.

Headline

(max. 9 words)

The Indian Ocean as New Nexus for Science

Description

(approx. 150 words)
Please describe the Wild Card (approx. 150 words)
The global epicenter of twentieth-century science was the Atlantic Ocean. The richest flows of scientific ideas and labor took place Europe and North America. In the coming decades, a new regional nexus for science and innovation will emerge along the Indian Ocean, thanks to several developments. The growth of science education and research in India, the Middle East, and South Asia. The recent recruitment of the president of National University of Singapore to lead Saudi Arabia's KAIST suggests a growing maturity of leadership and talent in this region. Growing intellectual and technical trade between China and Indian on one hand, and Africa on the other. Africa is the last great underdeveloped market, and Chinese and Indian companies and scientists are working to make sure that they have a presence in the region. This growing trade of ideas and technologies is starting to present a serious challenge to American and European influence in African science and technology. Africa is emerging as center of innovation and experimentation. In appropriate technology, cellular telephony, renewable energy, and agriculture, African entrepreneurs and scientists (sometimes partnering with Indian or Chinese colleagues) are developing innovations that are making their way back to India and south Asia. The growth of a regional trade of ideas, innovations, and talent across the Indian Ocean will boost economies and raise living standards. But it is likely to constitute yet another challenge to the supremacy of American and European science and technology.

Keywords

science, science centres, china, india, africa, global village

Mini-description

(max. 250 characters)

The global epicenter of science in the last two centuries was the Atlantic Ocean and countries around it. A new regional nexus for science and innovation, emerging along the Indian Ocean, could challenge the Atlantic scientific nexus.

Likelihood

Closest timeframe for at least 50% likelihood
Please use one of the following options:
now-2050+

Features of life if the wild card manifests

Feature 1: business models and industrial environment
Research follows the migration of manufacturing and economic growth to Asia, and serves as a spur to development in the Middle East and eastern Africa.
Feature 2: education and research environment
The geography of scientific research and innovation could shift, with the rise of a multipolar world of scientific research at best, and the eclipse of Western science at worst.
Feature 4: technology and infrastructure
Growth of new institutions and technology infrastructures-- monitoring networks, satellites, ocean sensors, etc.-- to support scientific research around the Indian Ocean.
Feature 6: health and quality of life
Improvements in health in developing countries.
Feature 7: security and defence
Science has been a significant resource for national competitiveness and national security. The ability of developing nations to participate in a growing scientific network, and of China and India to establish themselves as leaders of a new science region, could boost their global prominence and power.