The Académie des technologies (Academy for technologies): how useful is it for manufacturers and for the nation?

The recent creation of the Academy for technologies is the product of several observations. Never before have technologies opened up such perspectives, nor been such powerful influences on a planetary scale. Never before have they been such a part of people’s lives, changing their habits, work, environment, and in the longer term, their culture and identity. Finally, never have they been linked so much to large environmental challenges, both as a source of problems and solutions. Yet technology still suffers from a poor public image, and particularly in the French Ministry of Education. Will the new academy manage to organise a debate sufficiently wide-ranging that its results are credible, regarding the big questions concerning society that are posed by the new technologies ? And will it distance itself sufficiently from industry while still forging ahead ?