Posted on 03/16/2005 4:13:11 PM PST by Dat Mon
Are you folks starting to see a pattern here yet? (I hope)
Pinging.
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Time to start increasing the research budgets for the military, and increasing the budget for space exploration.
The technologies involved all contribute to military and space exploration applications, and civilian derivatives would soon follow.
Just funding research will get you nowhere if you're not funding research in a particular direction for a specific application.
Define the unattainable bounds as your goals, and then reach for them. Let the private sector take care fo funding pure research. Public funds should be directed at applicable science that pushes the bounds of what we know to be true without wasting money. Let the private sector do the risk taking, with the future contracts with the government as the carrot on the stick that drives them, should they discover something of use to the rest of us.
“Our current efforts are inadequate,” Appleton said. “Federal funding for R&D as a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product has been almost cut in half over the past 20 years. We must return to the investment levels of the mid-1980s in order to compete for leadership.”
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Yet more food for thought.
Are you folks starting to see a pattern here yet? (I hope)
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makes me think of President Ronald Reagan.
Go ahead and try again. ;-)
Thanks.....This is another way in which Ronald Reagan served this country so well, the likes of which we haven't seen since.
Decades in the past, the trends were spin off, then the budget had to crunch and go for the off-the-shelf which are called spin on. Will there be a come back of the trends of spin off once again?
“U.S. leadership in the nanoelectronics era is not guaranteed,” Barrett also said. “It will take a massive, coordinated U.S. research effort involving academia, industry, and state and federal governments to ensure that America continues to be the world leader in information technology."
If they are smart enough to succeed in those fields, they will be smart enough to realize that few of them are going to be well-paid -- and very unlikely to be well-paid compared to the amount of effort they put into the degree versus what they could do with other degrees requiring similar or less effort.
Right now most university funding goes to non-scientific areas. For every engineering student, we have 10 students in fields like sociology, poli-sci, mba's, anthropology, greco-roman studies, english lit, women's studies etc...
And for every dollar we are spending on training engineers, we are spending at least 10 dollars on the Ward Churchill types.
Meanwhile I've heard reports from Chinese insiders that they are launching a 'Manhatten Project', for nanotech.
"Just funding research will get you nowhere if you're not funding research in a particular direction for a specific application."
Hmmmm...sometimes theres a bit of serendipity involved in research...youre looking for A, and you find B...which leads you down a new path.
I support basic research in the Physical sciences, and also Astrophysical. Your research is always driven in a certain direction...by necessity...due to the nature of the scientific process itself.
If you mean to say that the research has to have a Commercial or Military application to be worthwhile...I wouldnt go that far. Coomercial always lags behind basic resaerch by years...sometimes decades.
One of the best examples of pure research that led to commercial applications was the original Bell Labs
"If they are smart enough to succeed in those fields, they will be smart enough to realize that few of them are going to be well-paid -- and very unlikely to be well-paid compared to the amount of effort they put into the degree versus what they could do with other degrees requiring similar or less effort."
Well in that case we might as well turn off the lights because America is screwed. If Americans are willing to let short term self-interest and greed take priority over the long-term welfare and security of our nation then we probably deserve what will come pass in that circumstance. For me personally, I would be more than happy to spend years of hard work in the university and then afterward take a low-paying job if I was able to find something that could be of help to my country in terms of its security and prosperity.
An army of MBA's did not put a man on the moon, an army of MBA's did not invent the atomic bomb, and an army of MBA's is not going to do sh*t to keep America at the forefront of technology.
"If they are smart enough to succeed in those fields, they will be smart enough to realize that few of them are going to be well-paid -- and very unlikely to be well-paid compared to the amount of effort they put into the degree versus what they could do with other degrees requiring similar or less effort."
Greed and laziness - that's what America's competitors are counting on.
What the article did not bring out plainly, is that both the PLA and, various defense labs in Russia, are putting lots of effort into nano war / nano weapon development. Meanwhile, NASA Ames not only has cut it way back, but they hire H1Bs from the PRC, Russia, and Slovakia to do the lab work. DOH!
You said.."Meanwhile, NASA Ames not only has cut it way back, but they hire H1Bs from the PRC, Russia, and Slovakia to do the lab work. DOH!"
All I can do is sit here and shake my head.
What will it take for people to get it?
RE: What will it take for people to get it?
Probably multiple nuclear warheads coming down and massive outbreaks of small pox.
You said.."Probably multiple nuclear warheads coming down and massive outbreaks of small pox."
That would do it.
Maybe people ought to stop their viewing of American Idol for a minute to consider...
We are in a competition with the rest of the world...just like American Idol...
They are not always nice, in fact they can be downright nasty...just like that British judge whose name I dont know.
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