May 25, 1997

UC BERKELEY

COMPUTER SCIENCE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

Lotfi A. Zadeh

Professor in the Graduate School and Director, Berkeley Initiative in

Soft Computing (BISC), Computer Science Division, Department of EECS,

University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1776. Tel: (510)642-4959;

Fax: (510)642-1712; E-mail: zadeh@cs.berkeley.edu.

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On commencement days such as this one, it is customary to avoid touching

upon issues which are contentious or in dissonance with majority-held

views. I will take the liberty of departing from this tradition because

there are contentious issues that have to be addressed and serious

structural problems in our society that your generation is likely to be

called upon to solve.

To put my views in perspective, I should like to note the obvious -- I am

not a native-born American, as most of you are. But I consider it a

privilege to be a citizen of this great country -- a country of vast

expanse, immense wealth, great diversity, unmatched power and a world

leader in almost every realm of human activity. But to me what matters

most is that it is a country in which human rights are taken seriously,

governance is ruled by law, and decency, generosity and fairness are

national traits.

To say what I said does not mean that all is well. Our society is faced

with serious problems that are visible to all: drug addiction,

homelessness, extremes of wealth and poverty, alienation and ethnic

conflicts. But there are other problems which -- though less visible --

are likely to cause serious damage to the fabric of our society in the

long run. My brief remarks will be focused on two linked problems which

fall into this category.

Many of you will be taking jobs in Silicon Valley, the heart of our

computer industry, the industry that is the driving force behind the

economic boom that we are basking in now.

When I ask our graduates who are working in Silicon Valley if they are

happy in their jobs, the usual answer is: the pay is good and the work is

interesting. But one important element is missing: the sense of

security, dignity and collegiality. In Silicon Valley and, more

generally, in the computer industry, the working environment is the

environment of cut-throat competition. As they say, "In Silicon Valley

if you make the mistake of stopping for lunch, you will be lunch." You

are hired today but may be laid off tomorrow, with no farewell parties

and no regrets. The bottom line is the stock price and not human

welfare.

Something is deeply wrong with our values when elimination of thousands

of jobs is greeted with applause by Wall Street, causing the price of

stock to go up and, not coincidentally, increasing the value of stock

options of company executives. In this climate, executives are not

expected to spend sleepless nights when downsizing leads to massive lay

offs. Indeed, any company that puts human welfare above profits and

efficiency risks serious damage to its competitive position

and, possibly,its demise. It is a sobering thought that profits have

become the driving force which shapes the dynamics of our society and

that money may become the determinant of values by which we live.

Perhaps we should pause and ask ourselves if we are doing the right thing when we

exert pressure on other countries to follow our example and abandon their

traditions of protection of social rights in the quest for efficiency and

stronger competitive position in the global marketplace.

There is a linkage between this state of affairs and the growing

intrusion of advertising and commercialism into all aspects of our lives.

A disturbing prospect is that as we move further into the information age

and the multimedia, the linkage will become stronger and less amenable to

control.

To many, advertising is the pillar of free enterprise. Up to a point,

advertising serves an essential purpose, but like any good thing that is

overdone, unrestrained advertising, with its high content of half-truths

and untruths, is becoming a force which is corroding our culture and

distorting our goals. The pervasive influence of advertisers on TV and

radio programming substitutes the size of audience for genuine concern

for quality of programs. Catering to the least common denominator leads

to programming which focuses on violence, sex, sports, scandal and human

interest stories. The amount of time devoted to serious news is

declining and the media -- driven by the quest for higher advertising

revenue -- are abdicating their responsibility to inform, educate and

inspire.

In this climate of media manipulation and commercialism, it is not

surprising that our young people have become cynical and materialistic.

This calls into question our ability to serve as a positive role model

for the young in other countries and other societies. Indeed, it is

alarming to observe the degree to which intrusive advertising and

commercialism have led to a vulgarization of our culture and an

abandonment of moral values that led this country to greatness.

The not-so-subtle control of our media by advertisers has led to the

emergence of consumerism as the dominant influence shaping our culture,

our values and our perceptions.

What is disconcerting to observe is that the pop culture programs which

are mass produced by the TV, movie and music industries in the United

States are displacing -- in the marketplace of other countries -- their

own products. As in the United States, low-grade programs, intrusive

advertising and rampant commercialism have become the norm in TV

programming in Europe and other countries as well. It was Jay Leno who

in addressing a European audience had this to say, "We have succeeded in

ruining our culture in the United States, and now we are going to ruin

your culture."

I am touching upon these issues because they have a definite impact on

the outlook and aspirations of the young in our society. A telling

statistic is that despite the rising demand for computer science

graduates, the number of undergraduate degrees in computer science has

dropped 43% from 42,000 in 1986 to 24,000 in 1994. What this suggests is

that a declining number of students are entering those fields in which

hard work is required, and that acquisition of knowledge for its own sake

is increasingly replaced by a quest for education as a ticket to a

better-paying job.

I have used harsh expressions to make my points. The picture I have

painted is darker than it should be. I have done this with deliberation

to underscore that it is our collective responsibility -- and especially

the responsibility of your generation -- the generation that will shape

our future, to do whatever can be done in our democratic society to

prevent the corrosive forces of commercialism and consumerism from

encroaching on our culture and becoming dominant influences in defining

our values, our beliefs and our morals.