Making The World Safer

For nations at war, technology has always been an unsteady ally. Yes, the Great Wall kept China's marauders at bay, at least for a while, but all the weaponry America brought to bear on the Vietnamese--from napalm to the B-52s--couldn't win their hearts and minds. In our present war, we will rely more than ever on technology: the clever missiles that target a terrorist leader; the vaccines that protect against biological weapons; the lines of code that render a computer impervious to cyberterrorists. As the public debates whether it's safe to fly again, high-tech innovations promise to do everything from positively identifying passengers at the gate to automatically returning hijacked planes safely to earth.

The men and women who dreamed up these technological wonders probably never imagined that civilization would someday rely so heavily on their ingenuity, but heroes rarely become so by their design. There is no guarantee, of course, that their creations will be used wisely or well. At Boston's Logan Airport, where the planes that hit the World Trade Center began their flight, the security codes to Jetway doors were often scribbled in pencil next to the locks. Technology can always be undone by human error.

So, give us the gizmos, but grant us the wisdom to know science alone will never make us perfectly secure.

The Innovators: