The current issue of Tech Review arrived… and the plaintive plea of Buzz Aldrin is so arresting. Why have we invested in one and not the other?
To be it seems like a surreal disconnect. Innovation is in florid bloom out there, with compounding technologies that warp the very fabric of reality. Big, bold projects to change the world… and beyond. Transportation is becoming electric and fully autonomous. New constellations of low-cost satellites will provide free imagery of every part of the Earth every day. A new wave of industrial and agriculture biotech is upon us as we move beyond cut & paste and freely write the code of life like we program a computer… and the software creates its own hardware. From a few artificial microbes, we can now create billions of novel life forms per day, with all of their DNA spooling from a gene printer. Various breakthroughs in digital non-volatile memory will take us to the post-CMOS era in computing. Humanoid robots will flow into the workforce in 2013 with more powerful AI to follow. Femtosecond lasers can machine materials with zero heat. Quantum computers can now outperform a classical computer by orders of magnitude, and may soon outperform all computers every built for certain optimization calculations and machine learning tasks.
The future is quite bright if you talk to entrepreneurs. The pace of innovation is breathtaking if you talk to scientists, continualy forging the future along the frontiers of the unknown. I hope more investors can look beyond the arbitrage plays rippling throughout the information economy, so easily farmed for their short-term pops, and fleeting sense of bounty. The daily din of opportunism can create a head buzz that crowds out healthier fare.
The pattern of progress comes into focus with a longer-term perspective. We are investing in SpaceX’s trajectory to colonize Mars, to take us where no person has gone before, to venture forth to make humanity a multi-planetary species. And, as I flipped the pages, I was delighted to see that we are investing in almost every “big opportunity” highlighted in the magazine.
Steve Jurveston
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Here's the ensuing conversation:
gsikich1
(3 weeks ago)
Great subtitle on the cover. We have stopped
solving big problems and that is because we
are distracted by immediate gratification and
the quick fix for things that are not fitted
for a quick fix. Read Nassim Taleb's new
book "Antifragile" and Shiff on the
next bubble - no quick fix! Great shots.
Oh sure, in historical terms what's going on
now with facebook, etc, in terms of years, or
even decades, is like going to pee, or having
a nap in the middle of an important activity.
I think the statement as is (didn't read the whole article) shows not only lot of prejudice but mental myopia. And a quite frightening fundamentalism of thought, on how things should be.
Things are as they are. Period.
I would expect from someone who went to the moon to have a really broad and integrating, systemic view on life on Earth, not the other way around. But, that is actually another prejudice. The only difference between mine and Aldrin's is that I realize I am expecting something based on my preconceptions and worldview, whereas Mr. Aldrin seems to think he view is THE view.
Didn't it happen to occur to Aldrin that Facebook - as the epitome of all this overload of connectivity and seemingly distraction- is necessary to the whole evolutionary progress of humans and science and technology?
Elon uses the money he made with PayPal to invest in Tesla and Space X...
I think the statement as is (didn't read the whole article) shows not only lot of prejudice but mental myopia. And a quite frightening fundamentalism of thought, on how things should be.
Things are as they are. Period.
I would expect from someone who went to the moon to have a really broad and integrating, systemic view on life on Earth, not the other way around. But, that is actually another prejudice. The only difference between mine and Aldrin's is that I realize I am expecting something based on my preconceptions and worldview, whereas Mr. Aldrin seems to think he view is THE view.
Didn't it happen to occur to Aldrin that Facebook - as the epitome of all this overload of connectivity and seemingly distraction- is necessary to the whole evolutionary progress of humans and science and technology?
Elon uses the money he made with PayPal to invest in Tesla and Space X...
(3 weeks ago)
Facebook has caused dictators to fall and people to be free. What is there so wonderful about colonies on Mars? Social change is easily as important as technological change and probably at our stage of development, where our technology has far outstripped our talent for living with one another, probably social change and communication are more important right now.
Facebook has caused dictators to fall and people to be free. What is there so wonderful about colonies on Mars? Social change is easily as important as technological change and probably at our stage of development, where our technology has far outstripped our talent for living with one another, probably social change and communication are more important right now.
i'm sometimes getting very confused..is it
the bright future or it's always the bright
past : )
i read the other day the article..what you posted on fb..not sure if the same...about political reaons behind the distribution..the ways hunger comes about...the technological solutions being somewhat superficial on that.. and that "we often plain don't know what the problem is.. yeah..interesting
somebody actually can see the whole picture? really?..
Gi, agree..but that's the pioneer's spirit i think..the down side of it :-)
i read the other day the article..what you posted on fb..not sure if the same...about political reaons behind the distribution..the ways hunger comes about...the technological solutions being somewhat superficial on that.. and that "we often plain don't know what the problem is.. yeah..interesting
somebody actually can see the whole picture? really?..
Gi, agree..but that's the pioneer's spirit i think..the down side of it :-)
I think the disconnect is excitement about
"how" versus understanding about
"why" basically. Does colonizing
mars on any real scale satisfy any reasonable
"why?"
I really don't have a lot of respect for the opinions of an astronaut about general progress. These are the men and women who rode on the tip of hundreds of billions of non-competing dollars. Public will had nearly nothing to do with the moon landing, and I predict the same will be true with the Mars landing.
Eh, Alieness said it better.
I really don't have a lot of respect for the opinions of an astronaut about general progress. These are the men and women who rode on the tip of hundreds of billions of non-competing dollars. Public will had nearly nothing to do with the moon landing, and I predict the same will be true with the Mars landing.
Eh, Alieness said it better.
(3 weeks ago)
the whole point of facebook now is delivering
individual tracking data.....
marketing is the world's ultimate goal now.
marketing is the world's ultimate goal now.
Thank you for being willing to back dreams of
where mankind can go.
(3 weeks ago)
today's robot-led exploration / prelude may
be the calm before the next storming of the
solar system
(3 weeks ago)
It is true, the present is incredibly
exciting. Thanks to people like Elon Musk and
others the possibilities of the present are
starting to be realized. I don't know about
Facebook but Google at any rate
revolutionized the revolution that is the
internet. Here I am inspired by people like
Elon Musk and commenting on the photo stream
of someone significant who I would never have
even heard of if it weren't for the internet.
I am just one of thousands if not millions
who may be able to make a small difference
influenced by truly exceptional role models.
In aggregate the effect is very likely to be
phenomenal. We can choose our Hero's now.
Before they were chosen for us.
"Facebook has caused dictators to fall
and people to be free."
On Mars, perhaps.
On Mars, perhaps.
(3 weeks ago)
"The daily din of opportunism can create
a head buzz that crowds out healthier
fare." Indeed. Well stated.
Where's my jetpack? Flying car? Moving
sidewalks? Pushbutton kitchen? Dog-walking
robot? Those are the things I was promised.
Exactly.
Speaking of which... I was promised the Playmobile's Pirateship and never got it. I know it's not the same kind of promise, but still feels frustrating. And I am not in the cover of a magazine complaining.
I came to terms with it.
Speaking of which... I was promised the Playmobile's Pirateship and never got it. I know it's not the same kind of promise, but still feels frustrating. And I am not in the cover of a magazine complaining.
I came to terms with it.
Well, also a palm-sized device that can
correctly navigate you from wherever you are
to the doorstep of the nearest emergency
room, wherever that is, showing you aerial
color imagery of every meter of the route.
I mean, it hasn't been a complete wash, Buzz. Also, have you played "Orbital"? It's cool beans, seriously.
I mean, it hasn't been a complete wash, Buzz. Also, have you played "Orbital"? It's cool beans, seriously.
(3 days ago)
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