Replies

Just visit Akihabara. You will find lots of items there that aren't -- and may never be -- available in the U.S. Want a Sony blue laser DVD recorder that records 23 gigabytes of high definition video? It's just 417,000 yen. Sorry, not available for the U.S. market, maybe next year. It's been available in Japan since April 2003 and has in fact come down about 10% in price since its introduction. The blue laser was developed by Shuji Nakamura, from his work on creating the first blue LED. Great science, great technology, great engineering. [Interestingly, Nakamura has now moved to the U.S., and he's now at UCSB.] Japan had i-mode (Internet) telephones (keitai) in 1999. Big screen LCD flat panel televisions and computer monitors were available far earlier than in the U.S. I visited Mitsubishi back in 1997 and had a demo of a monster portable LCD television that I still haven't seen the like of in the U.S.

Sony BDZ-S77 Blue Laser Disc Recorder (this page is in Japanese)

Which country is right now currently enroute with an ion propulsion drive spacecraft to the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) where the plan is to land on an asteroid, fire a "bullet" into the surface, capture the fragments as they fly away, and then return the package back to Earth? Japan is; its Hayabusa craft is now on its way to the asteroid Itokawa -- the craft was launched last year, and it just did a swing-by of the Earth. This craft is really zipping along right now, almost as fast Pioneer 11 after its big swing-by of Jupiter. The engines are microwave ion propulsion, and the Japanese created this microwave version of ion propulsion engines. The ion engine has been around for a long time; the U.S. had the first spacecraft (back in 1998 or so) to experiment with ion propulsion, but the Japanese have far outstripped us; for that matter, even the Europeans are ahead of us on deploying this technology.

JAXA information about the recent Hayabusa swing-by

Japan Journal's Science section

Where can you currently right now on an operational mag-lev train system? Hint, it isn't in the good old USA, and we didn't engineer it, either. A firsthand account of riding Shanghai's highspeed train. And where is the world's fastest maglev train (not yet commercially deployed, though)? It is in Japan

I don't know what is going on with this country; when Sputnik first flew, we went into a frenzy to teach a new generation of scientists and engineers. We resolved to put a man on the moon in 10 years. Our response to the current explosion of new technological progress abroad is not even tepid, it is completely apathetic. Maybe we can send a few folks to Mars by 2025 or whatever the latest 25 year plan in D.C. is. Probably not.

We aren't even trying to catch up. The number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents that are taking science and engineering degrees is in decline. From the NSF, about 1/3 the way down the page:

"Fluctuation in graduate S&E enrollment from 1994 to 2001 reflects a decline of 10 percent in enrollment by U.S. citizens and permanent residents, balanced by an increase of nearly 35 percent in foreign graduate S&E enrollment. A 26 percent drop among white men and 9 percent drop among white women drove the U.S. decline. U.S. minority enrollment increased by 22–35 percent. Foreign enrollment declined from 1992 to 1996, returned to its former level by 1999, and reached an all-time high in 2001."

Those that are foolish enough to get an S&E degree are not finding jobs, and those with science and engineering jobs are losing them. (see, for instance, IEEE's official stance limiting H-1B visa, Arizona Republic article on engineering trends).

And those who have don't have the first and best technology certainly won't have the first and best technology in weapons. Japan and Israel may fly some of our designs, but they put in their own electronics. We had to trade in a lot of goodwill with Japan to force them to not build their own aircraft in the 1980s; my guess we couldn't twist their arms like this again, especially we then backtracked on the original deal, and said that Japan was getting too good of a deal -- one that we had originally forced them into.

We aren't thinking ahead. We don't have the population to fight wars of attrition with a China or India, and when we lose our technological edge, we can forget doing anything other than trying to mount a decent self-defense force and hoping to play a good second fiddle to whoever it is in our interest it might be to play up to. This is not the legacy that I want to leave to my kids, and we better daggone do something pdq or we will be passed by.

I have heard rumors that Asian technology was better then ours but not having seen it with my own eyes I declined to use it in my arguments about off-shoring manufacturing and R&D. When you give your R&D away you give EVERYTHING away, and it appears that is exactly what we are doing. We are eating our seeds. The future looks very dim for our children, we are leaving them nothing.

"I don't know what is going on with this country; when Sputnik first flew, we went into a frenzy to teach a new generation of scientists and engineers. We resolved to put a man on the moon in 10 years. Our response to the current explosion of new technological progress abroad is not even tepid, it is completely apathetic." Snowislander

Thanks for that interesting post. The difference is in the 50's we still valued ourselves as a country and wanted our country as a whole to do well in the world. We placed promoted and helped pay for the prograns that would ensure we could compete. (On a side note, the new private competition in spacecrafts looks like a positive move).

"We aren't thinking ahead.... and when we lose our technological edge"

That' what you get we corporations are drive purely by the quarterly results (profits).

$$$ is the bottom line - it's their God. And the government
won't advise them.