Personal Perspectives on Mathematics and Mechanics

These days especially, provocative questions confront a socially conscious scientist when he begins to contemplate where applications of his work might lead. As one whose main work has been in pure mathematics, and who is beginning to concern himself with areas of applied mathematics such as electrical circuit theory, I wonder to what extent I should explicitly direct my work toward socially positive goals. Many issues on the relations of the profession of a scientist to the social crises of this time deserve a format, for example, at various professional meetings and conferences, as well as in the departments of universities. There are strong pressures on the scientist, from the sources of funding research, scientific tradition, and a basic conservatism of maintaining the status quo, which act to prevent discussion of these issues. Although I am not going to pursue such a discussion here, I feel that mathematicians and scientists in general must face these questions in a much more serious way than they have done to date (myself included).