We no longer have leaders with the vision to collaborate on a level large enough to impress scientists today.
Going to the moon - everyone can see the moon, it's a very achievable goal, we put a person on that big rock up there. It's easy to understand, but challenging enough that we still marvel at it. This was fueled by a desire to win against our competitors. The competition against another superpower created the desire to win. Net benefit to humanity: A cool line to write on a resume.
Nuclear fusion (not the best example, as we have stuff like NREL, but it will work) - a little bit more challenging. Closest example: We made a sun right here! It's much more difficult to get people to understand the impact that nuclear fusion would have. And, it has the 'nuclear' word attached to it. Politicians don't understand it (and wouldn't get any money from it). The general population doesn't care about it, because to them, the outlet will always be magical. Net benefit to humanity: The possibility to reverse global warming, unlimited clean water, free power, and solving a 'real' problem.
This makes me think of the superconducting super collider[1]. I know we still do amazing science and amazing things, but we choose to do them in the military, behind closed doors for the benefit of ourselves, rather than the benefit of humanity.
The 'golden ages' of history have generally occurred when society turned towards mathematicians, engineers, and scientists and basically said 'we don't know what you're doing, but we know it's important'. The trouble today is that everyone has an equal say on all issues (by having one vote, you are mapping a column of varying stances into one single value), regardless of how much they understand what they're talking about.
It makes me kind of wonder why an angel wouldn't come in and just fund some of the projects the government should be funding.
Going to the moon - everyone can see the moon, it's a very achievable goal, we put a person on that big rock up there. It's easy to understand, but challenging enough that we still marvel at it. This was fueled by a desire to win against our competitors. The competition against another superpower created the desire to win. Net benefit to humanity: A cool line to write on a resume.
Nuclear fusion (not the best example, as we have stuff like NREL, but it will work) - a little bit more challenging. Closest example: We made a sun right here! It's much more difficult to get people to understand the impact that nuclear fusion would have. And, it has the 'nuclear' word attached to it. Politicians don't understand it (and wouldn't get any money from it). The general population doesn't care about it, because to them, the outlet will always be magical. Net benefit to humanity: The possibility to reverse global warming, unlimited clean water, free power, and solving a 'real' problem.
This makes me think of the superconducting super collider[1]. I know we still do amazing science and amazing things, but we choose to do them in the military, behind closed doors for the benefit of ourselves, rather than the benefit of humanity.
The 'golden ages' of history have generally occurred when society turned towards mathematicians, engineers, and scientists and basically said 'we don't know what you're doing, but we know it's important'. The trouble today is that everyone has an equal say on all issues (by having one vote, you are mapping a column of varying stances into one single value), regardless of how much they understand what they're talking about.
It makes me kind of wonder why an angel wouldn't come in and just fund some of the projects the government should be funding.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider