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Taiwan at the Crossroads
As the relation between science and technology became closer, the dilemma of "to share or not to share" became an important issue not only for the application or technology, but also for scientific discovery. Until several years ago, Academia Sinica in Taiwan was considered to be a pure academic research organization. We supported the discovery of knowledge for mankind. We did not apply for any patents and nobody worried about the intellectual property right.

But during the last two years, we had established the Patent Office and hired somebody to manage the intellectual property created by the research activities carried out in Academia Sinica. Somebody asked me if I had given in from your idealistic thinking. Not quite. First, you have to be strong enough to let the knowledge be shared by all mankind and all human beings. It certainly does not seem fair if some countries produce all scientific knowledge, for example, Great Britain produced lots of scientific knowledge, and some other countries mainly dedicate themselves to mission-oriented research to gain economic competitiveness. That is what Japan had been doing for the past decades. Now, they are also spending lots of money trying to do fundamental research. Certainly, in a market-driven economy, open and free economic competition and the adequate protection of intellectual property right are necessary for the development of human society. Yet, we have to ask seriously that in a globalized world if we can find a new and better way so that both the creation and sharing of knowledge as well as technology can be carried out in a more orderly fashion for the purpose of promoting sustainable development for the entire world. That is the reason why it is so important to continue our advancement of science technology. However, science and technology cannot solve all the problems. On the contrary, the rapid development of economic activities, especially the fast moving global economy propelled by the advancement of science and technology could create some new problems.

In spite of the fact the globalization of the world economy will bring the world into a borderless society, it will not reduce the differences among people in various regions overnight. The differences in cultural heritage, language, and religion, which make this world so rich and colorful, will not and should not be made to disappear completely. Yet the establishment of a common global culture and new ways of communication among all the people certainly takes time. As the world becomes relatively shrunken and the contact between peoples becomes more frequent, whether the difference in civilization would cause an inevitable crash as suggested by Huntington, a well-known scholar, seems entirely to depend on how well peoples around the world learn to understand, appreciate, and respect the cultural heritage, and learn to communicate more effectively.

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