Previous Themes

The modern technological challenge to the basic values of democratic societies is complex and wide. Topics such as climate change, stem cell research, genetics, nanotechnology, artificial (synthetic) biology and information technology were discussed through the three dimensional prism of science and technology (the facts), ethics and law (political norms), and democratic government (political institutes). Israel is, in many ways, an ideal laboratory for exploring these questions given its international standing in the fields of science and technology, its special religious traditions, and its diverse ethnic population, not to mention it being a relatively young state, still in the process of shaping its democratic institutions.