A man of computers and peace

Tom Stonier

Professor Tom Stonier, who has died aged 72, was frequently called the "professor of futurology". For more than four decades he examined the ingredients of technological and scientific change, pointing out how our social, economic and political environment was in the process of transformation. He was a humanist, scientist and poet-philosopher.

It was Stonier who, more than 25 years ago, began a campaign to transform our education system, linking it with the development of computers, which he saw as liberators of human talents. He recognized very early on that a combination of education and computers would unlock the door to the information society, and argued that education had to become the most important investment in the future of all societies.

Stonier was born in Hamburg to a German-Jewish father and a French mother. In 1939, when he was 12, the family fled to New York, where he read biology at Drew University before taking a PhD at Yale in 1955. He began his scientific career as a research associate at Rockefeller University before joining the biology faculty at Manhattan College, New York, in 1962.

His first book, Nuclear Disaster, published in 1964, was based on his 1961 report to the New York Academy of Sciences which dealt with the biological and environmental effects of dropping a 20-megaton bomb on Manhattan. The book won world-wide attention and drew Stonier into the limelight as a pioneer proponent of peace studies. In 1973, he came to Britain and founded the school of peace studies at Bradford University.

In 1975 Stonier was appointed to the foundation chair in science and society at Bradford, where he specialized in the interaction of science, technology and society. His six books and countless monographs included The Wealth Of Information: A Profile Of The Post-Industrial Economy (1983), Information And The Internal Structure Of The Universe (1990), Beyond Information: The Natural History Of Intelligence (1992), and Information And Meaning; An Evolutionary Perspective (1997). His most recent book, No More War: The Hidden Evolution To Peace, will be published next year.

Consulted widely by governments throughout the world, Stonier lectured in Canada, Australia, China and south-east Asia. He was also consultant to some of the largest international companies, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and a life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Stonier reached the conclusion that computers were contributing to a biological change in the nature of human beings as well as human relationships: "The increase in computer power has been roughly 10-fold for every six or seven years over the last 30 or more years," he pointed out. "At this rate, early in the next century computer power will be about 1,000 times that of today's machines."

He is survived by his wife Judith, seven children and six grandchildren.

• Tom 'Ted' Stonier, academic, born April 29, 1927; died June 15, 1999

in http://www.steinschneider.com/biography/tomstonier.htm

OS DEFEITOS DO OUTRO SÃO A NOSSA CARA

O que transita em nossa mente e circula em nosso coração, é o que está á nossa frente; materializado como pessoas, fatos, acontecimentos...

Quando começamos a enxergar defeitos nas pessoas, é hora de ficarmos espertos. Só percebemos o que conhecemos e faz parte de nossos arquivos pessoais. Quanto mais algum defeito de caráter do próximo me incomoda mais forte ele está presente em mim. Se a intolerância dos outros me incomoda; sou mais intolerante ainda. Se a inveja das pessoas me perturba é a minha que destaca a dos outros. Pessoas mentirosas me escandalizam; é hora de rever como uso a verdade. A vida cotidiana é um espelho onde refletimos o que nos vai na alma; as pessoas que se apresentam á nossa frente são a nossa cara; os acontecimentos e fatos que nos escandalizam refletem o que guia nossos mais negados interesses.
Quando apontamos os defeitos e erros dos outros tentamos negar e esconder os nossos, tão iguais – Nessa ocasião somos os espelhos de nós mesmos. Duvida? Renega isso? – Então cuidado: Caso tenhamos o hábito de apontar os defeitos do próximo com freqüência, é melhor carregarmos um espelho no bolso. Se ainda lançamos mão da crítica, o problema é muito mais grave; preparemo-nos para levar bordoada de todo lado. Se apenas ao pensar já estou me dedurando; pior ainda, se falo ou escrevo sobre o problema do outro; aí sim, estou em maus lençóis. Podemos discordar; espernear; arrumar mil desculpas e justificativas – Perda de tempo, pois: Tudo que nos chama a atenção no outro é o reflexo de nós mesmos.
(http://americocanhoto.blogspot.com/2008/09/os-defeitos-do-outro-so-nossa-cara.html)