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The Massey Lectures have produced some interesting books over the years allowing experts to give a special perspective of topics of interest. I think of Brough MacPherson on The True Ring of Democracy and Ursula Franklin on ancient metals - and even Martin Luther King's lectures. The last few years have been something of a disappointment. Nonetheless, I approached Margaret Attwood's 2008 book about debt with hope. Attwood's work "Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth" reads well, there is thought behind it and it is topical. It does not offer hard economic content like Jeffrey Sachs data and charts in "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet" (2008) and Ian Bremmers's thoughful article "The End of the Free Market?" in Foreign Affairs (Spring 2009). Nor is Attwood the best person to reflect on theories of law and justice in societies, ancient religions and sociology - which she tackles along with other things. On the other hand her idea of debt as a plot in litterature is intriguing. In the end, Attwood is a skilled entertainer. She is not a source of reliable facts for the layman. Are Massey Lectures and the books produced at their best giving us entertainment by gifted public figures? By way of contrast, I stumbled accross a small book by an award winning young scientist, Ted Sargent, at the University of Toronto. He wrote in 2006 about the rapidly emerging world of nanotechnology - "The Dance of Molecules: How Nanotechnology is changing our Lives." Ted tells us about techniques for manipulating molecules which have largely arrived following the early1990s. These technologies are impacting medical diagnosis, medical treatment, solar energy production, environmental sensing and communications methods. The book restrains the usual tendency for hyperbole in the metaphors used. The book also largely avoids the tendency of science popularisers to give the reader a sense that he/she is a 5 year old. I finished the book with some feeling for bucky balls, quantum dots, photons, electrons, gates and holes. The writer is aware that some current directions like growing human organs pose ethical dilemmas. He knows the military are interested in some applications. The book ends with a quasi religious epilogue, worthy of the Massey Lecture tradition of the imparting of important and topical information by an expert. The reader is reminded that the powerful new nanotechnological discoveries can be used for good or ill. In a democratic society the reader, as part of an informed public, must help steer the political consequencies. For me, this kind of thoughtful young scientist taking time from the laboratory to pass on the importance of new technological developments should be given the visibility afforded by the Massey Lectures. Margaret Attwood already enjoys considerable influence. Her very considerable gifts are most developed in her fiction. All of which is not to deny that she is a thoughtful woman and that she ably entertains us and thoughtfully provokes us with the magic of her writing about debt. TOP
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