Every time I visit an academic and scientific center with the vice president for science and technology affairs, I see that talented students and some professors address him and express a significant and fundamental question with a tone full of compassion and words which are indicative of eagerness to growth and efforts: “what is the secret behind our advancement in nuclear sciences and achieving high levels, which makes atrocious powers concerned, and lack of any progress, and even being left behind, compared to our competitions, in other significantly lower level sciences and technologies, such as automotive industry?”

Similar to other officials, I have heard similar questions many times. It is logical for domestic and international viewers to have such concerns since we have reached proper positions in nano, bio and aerospace sciences but we have failed to produce common tools of life for our people. What has happened and which path did we take that we were able to acquire the necessary knowledge for production of missiles and launch satellites but we import cloths and food from Turkey and China? Even foreigners are amazed by the fact that Iran has been able to do extraordinary things in a short duration and be regarded as prominent country in some sciences and technologies in the region and the world but imports the usual requirements of life from China, Korea and Turkey.

Look at the list of imported products. This list is often published by political competitors and apart from common concerns, they have no intention but to suppress the opponent. However, logical consideration of the issue without any political disputes shows that these are parts of the needs of the country that no one has thought about, or has thought about but could not be able to supply with a reasonable quality and cost. Therefore, the government has allowed their import. That is why whenever such lists are published by newspapers, this question comes to the mind of people that how is it possible that we have had significant developments in biotechnology, stem cells and converging science and technology, in a way that countries of the region are jealous of us, but we have to import airbags? Is production of Iranian airbags more difficult than producing “radio medications”?

Regarding balanced development, it has been many years since professors and experts have conducted studies to remind its necessity. Unbalanced development is similar to a body with some strong parts and some undeveloped and weak parts. According to the history, “Rodin”, who is an outstanding French sculptor and his sculpture (The Thinker) is very popular, made a sculpture one day that was astonishing and beautiful. His hand were perfectly sculpted, as if they had veins with fresh blood. These hands would attract the attention of any audience and leave a mark on their consciousness in a way that they would admire the work. Any person who visited the sculpture would say: “Wow, such arms!” These hands were so artistically sculpted that they overshadowed the head, eyes, legs, ears and body of the sculpture. Therefore, the artist got overwhelmed and destroyed the hands with an ax. In this regard, Rodin stated: “an art must be coordinated and create a whole.” This applies to the development plan of any country. In other words, it is only logical to think about all industries when thinking about the development of a country.

However, it might be stated that there is no need to produce all of the items in the country. It is acceptable to make progress in production of seeds, food, livestock and agriculture as there has been many advanced in nano, bio and aerospace technologies. Meanwhile, economic consideration must not be neglected. Each country has its own important affairs, and defines development in proportion to its geographic situation and according to its diplomatic and economic policies. For instance, sometimes it is not worth it to manufacture a product due to various reasons. This is the meaning of strategy, when governments guide and decide long-term and short-term needs by forming an alternate program with beliefs, ideals, geography, and national and ethnic morals. For example, it is no surprise that a country with water and soil problems does not concentrate on wet farming and does not use all of its energy in this area. Another example could lack of investment of ship making in a country without any access to national waters. We need to evaluate political and economic consideration and illustrate a development map based on these consideration. Please do not take my word as if I am justifying our lack of development or as if I am pretending that our need to export is a normal action. However, lack of coordination and imbalanced development is a serious matter of discussion. What we have realized from the successful experience of nuclear, nano, bio or aerospace fields is that whenever we have focused, invested accurately and rationally, and culturally, politically and socially support the area, we have been succeeded in a short duration. It means that the primary measures are provided, there is a committed and creative human resource, and the foundation for growth is laid and we just need to focus and invest and really understand the necessity of this task.

What we achieved from our successful experiences is that, for example in the nuclear area, from the highest-ranking authorities (the Supreme Leader of Iran) to all society members participated in the process and turned it into a paradigm of “inalienable right” and “we can”. If such a paradigm is form in other areas, we will be ensured that we could achieve a better condition. In fact, science and technology must trust in the social and political power to create the foundations for its growth. We even had advances in the past and showed our ability in this area, which was emerged by all social powers. Carpet making, which is one of the artistic-cultural features of our handicrafts, has been a field participated by all society classes, from kings to rural women, who spent all their energy in this area. To use a general term, it can be said that you get what you pay for. Here, the meaning of paying goes beyond its common meaning. It means that the more use collect social assets, perform cultural tasks, put efforts in something and work for it, the more you can achieve. Without a doubt, if we want to use the successful experience in the nuclear field, from the aspect of political and international affairs, in production of necessary seeds in the country, rest assured that we could obtain an extraordinary condition sooner than expected. However, all of these are based on an intelligence recognition, which can create something and put everything in its own place. In fact, coordinated development does not mean to do anything and enter every field and recognize all needs. Even the meaning of self-efficiency is not creating all of the things ourselves. In fact, we need to find our priorities and create a development map according to the strategic condition of the country.   

Meanwhile, a very important topic, which is experienced human resource, must not be neglected. In fact, human resource is the same “social asset”. Our educated human resource has currently turned into a strange problem for us. It means that the same people who can empower us act as burden on our shoulder preventing us from flourishing. Even if we disregard the unemployment problem of this society class, we cannot forget the issue of article writing. We are extremely looking for scientific advancement and its accelerated growth. On the other hand, it is claimed that improvement of article writing not only has no effect on our science and technology, but also it makes us delusional and holds us back. For instance, they say that scientific growth does not guarantee progress, or technology is more important than science. Today, I prefer not to talk about this issue. However, something very significant for all of us is that graduated human resource must be used properly. Whether the person writes an article or puts on the cloths of entrepreneurship and technology and goes to the laboratory, factory and research center to create an exportable product, all are valuable and necessary for our country. I just want to say that development of article writing indirectly increases the quality of training human resources. This human resource will be able to develop technology along with advancing other dimensions of national development. Nevertheless, it requires an important condition: other prerequisites must be provided as well. Here, the necessity of four-generation university becomes more serious. We need to seriously talk about this issue to reach the important issue of: contradictions and ambiguities in fight over goodness or badness of article writing must be eliminated to obtain an appropriate result.

Accurate detection “needs” can determine the future path. Currently, we are dealing with the problem of lack of sufficient water sources. Global warming and lack of water as environmental pollutants can geographically put us in danger. Therefore, we need to obtain the necessary tools and knowledge with the national determination in a knowledge-based form so that the problem of dunes, pollution and risk of lack of sufficient water can be eliminated. Our agriculture has failed to grow in proportion to the industry due to various reasons. Today, traditional methods cannot create consistency and meet our needs. The amount of water lost in traditional agriculture is so high that it actually generates production at a huge cost. The water used to produce watermelons is more expensive than the watermelon itself. Therefore, it is rational to develop our agriculture very soon using the same national determination and knowledge-based methods. It means that we need to define coordinated development according to our actual needs, and make progress based on calculated maps. Sometimes, it is necessary to provoke the feelings of people and make an emotional environment. However, we should avoid emotional decision making about illustration of the development map and losing our self-confidence or obtain false confidence. Nevertheless, new technologies in the water area have yielded promising results, especially in deep water. Here, everything is based on thinking and creativity in an extensive manner. Development is not just the responsibility of authorities. While their duties are greater than others, people of our society are responsible as well. In fact, until the development is not turned into a national matter and all society members do not consider themselves as responsible components and adhere to the general map, we cannot obtain an immersive progression. There was a well-known poem during our elementary school on the process of growth and development, saying: we need to be united to build our homeland together.

Parviz Karami- advisor to the vice president for science and technology affairs