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495 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 10 (1988)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0495 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE Science is on the verge of being transformed by one of its own prodigies- information technology. Underlying this technology is the digital computer, whose memory and processing capacities are at the threshold of unprecedented expansion. Already available are new computer architectures composed of parallel processing systems so powerful that they are adding to theorizing and experimentation a third mode of doing science. Over the doorstep are software systems so advanced that they will provide the scientist with automatically generated computer programs tailored to highly specific research tasks, immensely increasing research productiv- ity. Under development are tools for interfacing the researcher with his or her equipment in ways that are much more natural, or user-friendly; intelligent, providing expert assistance; and flexible, being able, among other things, to give instructions by spoken word. Also on the horizon are improvements in glass fiber and laser transmission media, and improved network switching devices, that will enormously increase the ability of computing systems to communicate with each other. The machine underlying this technology-based revolution in science is also the prime mover of the so-called information age, an epochal event not likely to have escaped the attention of Annals readers. While impacts of the information age on society at large have been fairly well publicized, assessments of its impact on the scientific enterprise itself have been relatively restricted. The present volume takes its impetus from that state of affairs. As the world continues to move ever more deeply into the information age, the role played by science and technology in national and international decision making grows more prominent. In turn, the economic and political implications of information technology are becoming preponderant considerations in technical decision making, as are sociological and psychological factors. Few works in what I shall dub the information-age literature fail to emphasize the cardinal importance of sociological and psychological factors when discussing the infrastructures required for the effective operation of informational systems. The significance of these interconnections for the scientific enterprise stands out in many of the articles composing the present volume. To return to the major theme of the volume, its purpose is to examine the impingement of the information age on science per se-and, more particularly, on scientific interchange and communication-rather than examine the ultimate social transmutations that may take place. The term telescience is adopted for the purpose of conveying the increasingly global scope of scientific intercourse that the information age tends to spur and because it depicts an essential feature of the communicational environment in which science will henceforth be conducted. Telescienceis attributed to the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, where it is used to refer to scientific research carried out remotely via computer-based NOTE: This article was written while the author was employed by the government, and is in the public domain. 10

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