Can regulators keep up with the exponentially increasing speed and
complexity of decision making?
Can they - or indeed, you - make the right choice based on just reading an executive summary and maybe spending an additional 5 minutes on searching Google, Bing or Baidu?
What would you do in the following situation?
Imagine ...
you are one of the 751 members of the European Parliament.
You just got back from hiking with your interns in the forest outside Brussels.
It was fun. But now you need to go through some legislative work before your party meeting starts.
...
You find four new proposals on your desk.
One has something to do with genetically altered plants.
Your assistant already received two calls from lobbyists this morning.
One was from a major agricultural corp, asking you to vote for cutting all current red tape on genetic modification of crops.
The other was from a professor from the University of Edinburgh,
asking you to keep gene editing legal while maintaining the ban on genetic modification.
...
You are a bit confused
as to what's the difference between the two methods.
You find yourself staring out of the window of your office located in the Antall Building and notice a great crowd on Luxembourg Square.
The demonstrators chant "SAVE THE FUTURE! BAN ALL GENETICALLY ALTERED CROPS!"
You have five minutes before the meeting starts
and you need to decide which of the following options to support.
...
What you need to do now:
Please do a quick research in the topic,
spend NO MORE THAN 5 MINUTES on it
and answer the following questions (submit your answers by commenting):
1. Would you vote for:
A) Banning genetic modification of crops
B) Banning gene editing of crops
C) Banning both methods of genetic alterations of crops
D) Banning neither
2. What do you think:
How much time would you need to make a well-informed decision on this topic, keeping in mind unforeseen and long-term consequences of your decision?
A) 5 minutes was plenty enough
B) I would need less then an hour
C) I would need a couple hours
D) I would need more than that
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