TECHNOLOGY IS THE ANSWER

You don’t have to look back all the way to the first appearance of mankind on earth to marvel at the progress made in human creativity and problem solving capability. Just check how people lived in this country a mere 400 years ago – a blip on the radar screen of time – and compare it with how we live our lives today and think about all the human creativity and problem solving that was brought to bear to get here from there.

When the development of nuclear weaponry and missile technology was determined to be required to beat the Axis in WWII, it was done and it saved the world not only from fascism but later on also from communism.

When John F. Kennedy announced this nation’s determination to put a man on the moon it got accomplished in an astonishingly short time.

All this innovation proves what we like to believe but not always practice: that human ingenuity knows of no borders or limits. It just needs to be directed towards the right purpose.

These days the pace of innovation is happening on an exponential scale. Not much changed in the world in more than a millennium between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance in a manner that had an appreciable effect on people’s daily lives. Now, by advances in technology - from medical technology, nano technology, artificial intelligence to communications technology and astronomy - the way we live changes faster than ever before.

While up to World War I most innovation originated in Europe, the United States has since become the lead horse in the technology race and should be concerned with staying in the lead in the face of global competition. What is required and what is at stake?

What’s at stake is the leadership role of the United States in the world and the sustainability of the global pace of innovation. It is not impossible, but hard to see, that the pace of innovation can be sustained if we in the United States don’t challenge ourselves to stay in the lead and take the steps that will enable us to do that.

What’s required is 1) world class education and 2) motivation of the largest possible component of the population together with 3) proper resource allocation and 4) the collective will (determination) to make it happen. We need a “refuse to lose” attitude to pervade all social strata. Our nation should be concerned about bigger things than who wins the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup, the World Series or the NBA Championship. This means that we have to get better at educating people and putting them at work in circumstances and positions where they sense that they can make a difference and, in fact, make a contribution to the sustainability of our leadership position. What’s required, in addition, is a clear articulation of some overarching national objectives and a popular buy-in of these objectives. That is the role and responsibility of government. The execution of the plan for reaching these objectives can safely be left in the hands of the private sector.

What might some of these national objectives look like? I would argue that:

a)      Creating the circumstances whereby most, if not all, of our residents can lead healthy lives for at least 90% of a lengthening lifespan and productive lives for at least 70 % of the same lifespan;

b)      Defense against climate change and/or protecting people and property from the adverse consequences of climate change;

would make a good place to start. Let’s look at these a little closer.

With respect to the first objective:

We are not running on all cylinders. Innovation and creativity comes from too few of us. It would be in the national interest and a tremendous boost to our chances to maintain world leadership if we were able to mobilize each and every resident to be productive citizens. That requires making sure that they have unfettered access to education and that they are in a mental and physical condition fit for peak performance for most all of their adult life. Today we have too few producers and too many consumers. Since humans, by nature, will always be facing a limited lifespan –thank goodness! Can you imagine what the world would look like if we just kept procreating and none of us ever went away? - medical research should be focused on keeping people in a positive frame of mind, pain free, fit and productive, accepting the fact that one day we all must die from something. Healthcare that aims to achieve just that is a political and sociological imperative. It deserves an all out scientific, technological and political effort and commitment.

With respect to the second objective:

Too many people see the issue of climate change as a politically motivated, ideological matter. It is, however, beyond doubt that icecaps are melting around the globe and glaciers are retreating. What we are arguing about is, if and to what extent human intervention is driving this phenomenon. Winning or losing that argument is of little interest to people who stand to lose their livelihood if not their lives as a result of climate change.

Climate changes are older than mankind. But never before in history have as many people and as much private property been threatened by the effects of climate change. Close to home, where beach erosion already challenges the desire to live at the ocean’s edge, just imagine the consequences of the sea water level rising a few feet or hurricanes increasing in frequency and intensity. We are burdening the earth with many more people - and all they bring to bear - than ever before. History’s way of dealing with that is by correcting the situation by cataclysmic events, wars, plagues, meteorite impacts, earthquakes and you name it. That’s not how we like to solve our problems in this day and age. Our challenge is to create conditions under which the earth can accept the burden and people can go on with their lives. Technology will have to be the answer. Any technology that the United States can develop that will serve to:

ü Deal with world shortage of accessible fresh and clean water;

ü Solve the nuclear waste issue or make it manageable;

ü Make clean coal an affordable reality;

ü Mitigate if not eliminate the risks associated with the recovery of fossil fuels and gas;

ü Make other alternative energy sources an affordable reality;

ü Lessen the environmental impact of any other kind of human activity;

will have great global commercial value and enhance both the prestige and the world ranking of the United States. Herein lays the key. We should embrace the challenge presented by the current wave of global warming rather than arguing if it is even happening. We should embrace the challenge to find ways to sequester CO2 from our emissions even if we are only half certain that these emissions are causing the apparent climate change. And we should embrace the challenge to find economically feasible alternatives for fossil fuels. Which nation is better equipped than the USA to find solutions for these problems? If we don’t find them some other nation will and we lose the opportunity to maintain our leadership of nations. Conversely, if we do find technological solutions for the challenges presented by climate change and the need for greater human productivity, these solutions will be very marketable all over the world and enhance not only our economic prospects but also our prestige in the world.

Technology should also provide the answer in the raging debate about (illegal) immigration. The United States needs immigrants as much as it has ever needed them. If some hot-heads actually found a practical way to send all illegal immigrants home, our economy would be in desperate straights. The issue is not keeping immigrants out. The issue is keeping undesirables out and knowing who’s in the country. The technology exists to give every resident of the United States a bio-metric identity card that establishes a forge-proof identity. Sorry for all the students who now buy their beers with fake ID cards. There is a lot more security in a bio-metric identity card than in the biggest wall or largest electric fence we can build along our borders as a symbol of misunderstood interests.

Technology should finally serve to bring our business and service levels to the next level.  Let’s face it. Most of us already work as hard as we humanly can and we may assume that we are about as smart as we will ever be. Progress in any field will have to come from two sources: participation by a higher percentage of the population and new and better ways of doing things, i.e. technology.

The democratic systems are ideal to foster ingenuity and creativity, because they allow equal opportunity to all to think for themselves and find their own way rather than a path that may be laid out for them by their government. Democratic systems also make education more freely available to all who care for it. This is why so much innovation has come from private enterprise in the United States. There is no good reason for us to lose that edge. We can only defeat ourselves. Science and Technology are the answer in addition to maintaining a society where the quality of life for virtually all is better than anywhere else in the world. Because innovation and ingenuity still need to be nurtured.