Ismail Serageldin gave a stirring keynote address on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Social Research Center of the AUC. Before hundreds of social scientists, he gave a stinging critique of the state of social research in Egypt, challenged the current analytical framework of the non-economic social sciences, and discussed technical issues of study deign, measurement and interpretation. He ended with a stunning array of pictures referring to the types of new computer simulations which he believes hold promise for the future of social research.