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Taiwan at the Crossroads
     Well, the other important consequence of the globalization of human activities is the spread of disease around the world. With a fleet of airplanes flying across oceans between continents loaded with people and goods, diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and other microbes certainly will not be confined to certain localities. In addition to the spreading of diseases, we also have to be aware of the fact that we, homo sapiens, are in constant competition with the evolution of microbes, bacteria, and viruses, as forewarned by Professor Joshua Ledeberg, a Nobel laureate in medicine. With a relatively long life cycle, the evolution of homo sapiens is a lot slower than bacteria or viruses, their life cycle can often be in hours or in days, and exposure to radiation or chemicals could induce their mutation rather easily. While we are trying to beat these viruses and bacteria, those small creatures are also mutating quite quickly, especially those affected by manmade activities producing chemicals or radiation, their mutation seems to become faster and faster. So we are really in constant competition and we are facing a lot of problems at the present time.

     It seems to be quite obvious that the future of Taiwan as well the entire humanity is built upon a global system of politics, economics, culture and ecosystems, which calls for interdependence among all countries and regions of the world. And, no matter whether we are paying enough attention or not, we shall soon find out that the world in which we live is indeed the whole earth, and we are all living in a global village and the fate of all the peoples on earth are linked together.

     Certainly, things have to change in Taiwan, as well as in the rest of the world, and we are the ones to make it happen. We have to face the problems concerning the usage of energy and the relation to our environment. In order to maintain sustainable development for the entire world, we must increase energy efficiency, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, develop renewable energies, and examine more carefully the policy on population and the consequences of all human activities on our living environment and ecosystems. But it seems to be more important for those who live in the developed countries to ask the question: "If everyone on earth lives like us, could the earth carry the burden?" In the past decade, the interaction of scientists and technological personnel among the Third World countries has become more frequent. They seemed to become aware that they share problems which are not of interest to those developed countries. They also understand that in order to catch up, it is necessary to commit a certain percentage of GNP to education and research. However, the question still remains.

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