Public Interest Technologies (PIT): A Synthesis for Sustainable Peace and Prosperity for Humanity

A discussion about Public Interest Technologies (PIT) and how multidisciplinary stakeholders should come together to make a positive change during the current times.

“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy... cities will never have rest from their evils - no, nor the human race as I believe...” -- Plato

“The lowest form of thinking is the bare recognition of the object. The highest, the comprehensive intuition of the man who sees all things as part of a system.”  -- Plato

“Egoismus ist der Feind der Zukunft”* -- Jean Claude Juncker, Former President of the European Commission 

*Selfishness is the enemy of the future

What started as a video chat with Dr. Elias G. Carayannis about AI and Industry for a Springer SDG 9 campaign quickly turned into a discussion about Public Interest Technologies (PIT) and how multidisciplinary stakeholders (including those in AI and those in industry) must work together to make a positive change during the latest sea change that technology, the environment, and global unrest are bringing about. Luckily, he’s writing a book to help make sense of it all. Below, Elias writes about his thinking on the synergies that must take place. 

The world is at a crossroads not seen since the end of the Cold War, with emerging disruptive technologies, heightened inequalities, and brewing hostilities. To work to avoid catastrophic upheaval, it is a time for a constructive synthesis of people, cultures, and resources to envision a better tomorrow with sustainable peace and prosperity for all.

 Technology can be the game changer and enabler of resolving and/or bypassing many of our challenges to transform them into opportunities.

 The word “synthesis” is from the Hellenic language literally meaning to “bring together and position in harmonious complementarity”. This term conceptualizes the act of convergence, combination and culmination of concepts, resources, and capabilities in pursuit of a higher purpose. 

Fittingly, my newest book will appear in the Springer series Synthesis Lectures in 2024. The book addresses the challenges and opportunities of two Public Interest Technologies (PIT), namely Artificial Intelligence and Fusion Energy. PITs act as enablers for the development and deployment of hybrid (public/private) goods that add value to both private investors and public stakeholders alike, and are typically conceived, matured, and evolved by public-private-partnerships for research and technological development. 

 Incorporating PIT into technology development enables the development and deployment of hybrid goods - private and public, such as peacebuilding and peacekeeping - that create value for both private investors and public stakeholders, and are typically conceived, matured, and developed through public-private partnerships for research and technological development. 

 We need to fully and truly engage to develop and advance the state-of-the-art in AI and fusion as PITs  from a multi-stakeholder perspective (Government, University, Industry, Civil Society, the Environment) and to pursue and identify constrained sub-optimization of resource allocation in pursuit of optimal public, private, and hybrid (public-private) goods generation via Public-Private-People-Planet-Partnerships (P5) in pursuit of Nash Equilibria across public policy and private practice actions and initiatives inspired by triple-top-line (Ethics, Effectiveness and Efficiency) and triple-bottom-line (Financial, Social and Environmental Sustainability) priorities and considerations.

See Dr Carayannis’s book Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

About the author

Dr. Elias G. Carayannis is a professor of Information Systems and Technology Management as well as the co-founder and co-director of the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and the director of research on Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the European Union Research Center (EURC) at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB).