I look out from the pampered little community of Princeton, which Einstein described in a letter to a friend in Europe as "a quaint and ceremonious village, peopled by demi-gods on stilts". I look out from this community of bankers and professors to ask, what can we do for the suffering multitudes of humanity in the world outside. The great question for our time is, how to make sure that the continuing scientific revolution brings benefits to everybody rather than widening the gap between rich and poor. To lift up poor countries, and poor people in rich countries, from poverty, to give them a chance of a decent life, technology is not enough. Technology must be guided and driven by ethics if it is to do more than provide new toys for the rich. Scientists and business leaders who care about social justice should join forces with environmental and religious organizations to give political clout to ethics. Science and religion should work together to abolish the gross inequalities that prevail in the modern world. That is my vision, and it is the same vision that inspired Francis Bacon four hundred years ago, when he prayed that through science God would "endow the human family with new mercies".

LINK: http://www.templetonprize.org