Re: REPEAT -- even more relevant now -- Dear Mr. President: Let's talk tech

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rahul Tongia <tongia () cmu edu>
Date: November 6, 2008 8:59:44 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>, Rahul Tongia <tongia () cmu edu>
Subject: Re: [IP] REPEAT -- even more relevant now --  Dear Mr.  
President: Let's talk tech
Reply-To: tongia () cmu edu

Dave,

There is a fantastic and telling graphic at the blog by NYTimes  
columnist Andrew Revkin:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/what-would-an-energy-moon-shot-look-like/

It shows how federal R&D budgets have not only fallen but also shifted  
across domains.
<author corrected to:

The federal R&D budget hasn't fallen overall by this graphic, but has  
certainly shifted.

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/what-would-an-energy-moon-shot-look-like/ 
>

The comments to the blog also point out challenges with "centralized"  
R&D that might work for a moon shot but may not work for, say, energy.

Also, I know it's behind a subscriptionwall, but people should read  
AAAS's Science Magazine editorial from Sept. 19, 2008 (page 1605, vol  
321).

The most telling 3 paragraphs I except below:
"Much has been accomplished since The Gathering Storm was published. A  
new research university was established, with an opening endowment  
equal to what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology amassed after  
142 years. Next year, over 200,000 students will study abroad, mostly  
using science or engineering degrees, often under government  
scholarships. Government investment in R&D is set to increase by 25%.  
An initiative is under way to create a global nanotechnology hub. An  
additional $10 billion dollars is being devoted to K-12 education,  
with emphasis on math and science. And a $3 billion dollar add-on to  
the nation’s research budget is in process. Of course, these actions  
are taking place in Saudi Arabia, China, the United Kingdom, India,  
Brazil, and Russia, respectively.

"What about in the United States? After the U.S. Congress authorized  
funding to implement many of The Gathering Storm’s recommendations,  
the needed funds were lost in an impasse over the Appropriations Act.  
As a result, one leading national laboratory began to impose mandatory  
2-day-per-month “unpaid holidays” on its science staff, several  
laboratories began laying off researchers, the U.S. portion of the  
international program to develop plentiful energy through nuclear  
fusion was reduced to “survival mode,” America’s firms continued to  
spend three times more on litigation than research, and many young  
would-be scientists presumably began reconsidering their careers.  
Meanwhile, a $3 trillion dollar federal budget was approved and a $152  
billion dollar economic stimulus package (much of which is likely to  
be spent on products made in China) whisked through Congress along  
with 12,000 earmarks that found their way into the Appropriations Act.
...
"Of the 535 members of the U.S. Congress, only 8 list themselves as  
engineers or scientists. Of the 9 senior leaders in China, 8 hold such  
degrees. How can America’s political leaders be expected to make sound  
policy decisions in a world of increasingly complex science and  
technology if the most qualified individuals in those fields remain  
absent from the field of play?"

Rahul

************************************************************************
Rahul Tongia, Ph.D.
Senior Systems Scientist

Program in Computation, Organizations, and Society (COS)
School of Computer Science (ISR) /
Dept. of Engineering & Public Policy

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
tel: 412-268-5619
fax: 412-268-2338
email: tongia () cmu edu
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rtongia



David Farber wrote:
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9117298 
>  Dear Mr. President: Let's talk tech
> Top IT luminaries demand action from the next administration
> By Gary Anthes
> October 21, 2008 (Computerworld) Science and technology may not have  
> been the focus of the recent debates between presidential hopefuls  
> John McCain and Barack Obama, but both candidates have outlined some  
> broad policy proposals and goals. That's a good thing, because, as  
> some of the top technology thinkers in the United States today  
> recently shared with Computeworld, the next president will have to  
> tackle the country's ongoing decline in global technological  
> competitiveness.
> Obama says he'll "change the posture of our federal government from  
> being one of the most anti-science administrations in American  
> history to one that embraces science and technology." He has  
> promised to double federal funding of basic research over 10 years,  
> to appoint the nation's first chief technology officer, to make the  
> R&D tax credit for corporations permanent and to "restore the basic  
> principle that government decisions should be based on the best- 
> available, scientifically valid evidence and not on the ideological  
> predispositions of agency officials or political appointees."
> McCain has not said directly what he might do about the level of  
> federal spending on research, but he has said he favors technology- 
> friendly policies aimed at the private sector through "broad pools  
> of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America...and  
> streamlining burdensome regulations." He says he'd make the R&D tax  
> credit permanent and set it equal to 10% of the wages a company pays  
> its R&D workers, and he says he'd allow companies to write off the  
> cost of new technology and equipment in the first year.
> Both candidates have outlined educational reforms that they say will  
> make the U.S. more competitive in science and technology.
> Computerworld recently asked nine high-tech luminaries to offer  
> their advice to the next U.S. president. Their answers appear below.  
> They represent the views of the individuals and not necessarily  
> those of their employers.
> Advice by:
> Henry Chesbrough
> Judy Estrin
> Vint Cerf
> Dave Farber
> Bob Kahn
> Len Kleinrock
> Ed Lazowska
> Rick Rashid
> Victor Zue
> -------------------------------------------
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