"The Centre is dedicated to improving our understanding of the interactions between society, technology, science and the biosphere (STSB) and of their implications for human life. These interactions include ways in which we guide science and technology through specific scientific undertakings and technical endeavors, as well how science and technology guide our contemporary civilization -today and in the past- through their influence on human life, society and the biosphere. Our present scientific and technical division of labour and the knowledge infrastructure built on it ensure that the undesired consequences of decisions made by specialists mostly fall beyond their domains of expertise where they cannot “see” them, thereby institutionalizing an end-of-pipe approach to these consequences and preventing contemporary ways of life from becoming economically sound, socially viable and environmentally sustainable."