Bleeding Edge

It was the Best of Times — It was the Worst of Times…

America’s Dark Age is upon us already and yet nobody sees this as the elephant ion, inside the room — because being so tiny, it’s really invisible — and of course no one wants to speak loudly about our lack of “pink elephant” sightings.

With today’s announcement of the Presidential aspirations of the idiot Ted Cruz, clearly saying that he will be running for the presidency of the country on an anti-science platform as just another Christian Taliban — it has finally dawned on people that we might be in for a bath. And what a bath this would be. A full on fancy dress and evening frock icecapade. Because with a Senate and House controlled by equally anti-science and anti-technology freaks – we are really in for an ice-cold drenching. And with all the ice glaciers melting really fast, and all around us — this frigid cold bath will come rather soon…

Just hope this isn’t in the middle of the night, when the massive Greenland Glacier already floating high on meltwaters and river fed underground vast reservoir lakes — will suddenly slip out into the sea, prompting a rise of ea level up to 70 meters overnight…

On the other side of the pond, we have Europe’s anti-science brigade masquerading as long term Economic thinking, and the same type of “Conserve-Contstipe” mini Hitlerites, apply the current financial squeeze that defies any real economic science.
Europe in terms of economic policy agreement is like the Cuckoo’s Nest. Not the movie but the real thing. Europe’s economic scene is like the lunatic asylum where the inmates have gotten control of the keys and the facility and are having a party.

And thus Europe is going backwards fast, because any easy solutions, are not part of this harmful ideology. The Berlin and Brussels leaders think of themselves as the High Inquisitors of a Priesthood. Member of the Sisters of Austerity cult — they believe that only through the burning at the stake of whole “Peoples” they can exorcise the Satan from their midst.

Except they haven’t figured out yet that they themselves are the very Cancer that Europe needs to excise before it starts healing, because of their Gothic spiritual insistence on a culture and an ideology of Self-harm. The belief in Self-inflicted austerity is as old as the Hun tribes considered a facial cut [Self inflicted] tats to be the mark of an officer and man of distinction. And thus the whole continent is given to harming themselves and this nefarious attitude has sunk any hope for economic recovery and although it has met a mall measure of popular restlessness for more tangible measures to revive economic growth and create jobs — this Germanic Suicide machine is perpetuated.

On the other hand, of course the various protesters vividly express their widespread frustration with the deepening inequality, and offer condemnation of the visible and invisible privileges of a global financial elite. The people’s angst is now so deep that is implicating their governments as the Root of All Evil.

In previous times, such a situation would have been described as pre-revolutionary. In today’s world, the consequences may seem more benign, but they are no less worrisome…

The catastrophic loss of solidarity, the return to racism, nationalism, xenophobia and insularity, gives all of us a far greater concern for the rising and very violent terrorism & political extremism.

Europe’s image has suffered accordingly, notably from the perspective of Asia’s booming economies. Whereas China, India, and others have enjoyed continuing economic growth and investment in research and innovative capacity, Europe is perceived as being on the brink of decline, economically as well as politically. Worse still, Europe also seems intent on ignoring its persistent strengths.

The same is the story in America where the persistent strengths lie in it’s science base, same as in the EUropean tradition, since those Scientific Strengths are part of the cultural heritage that shapes the European identity.

In terms of numbers of Science and Engineering graduates Europe and America compare favourably with their international competitors, but they are both lagging behind in the arena of Science applications to Public Policy.

Whereas China has a great Leap Forward policy of creating engineers and commercializing all available Science and Technology — in Europe and America we are weather vane to the wind and whims of a fickle marketplace.

Long Gone Are the Moonshot moments of America…

Poor Europe never even had one Moonshot moment yet…

So why does Europe and America produce many novel scientific ideas and discoveries, but fail to transform them into marketable products ?

In fact, that question is wedded to an obsolete linear model of innovation.

What is lacking in both Europe and America is Proper Science Public Policy.

Because only through Public Policy and Support we can create public and official awareness of where the real potential of European and American science lies.

It has always been thus: Scientific curiosity, given sufficient resources, space and autonomy, remains the most powerful driving force behind the completely unforeseeable transformations in how our societies develop and progress forward.

Lack of the above parameters drive whole societies to a depression, blockage of progress, and eventually into the waiting arms of the Dark Ages.

Frontier research, like Physics, STEM research & innovation, and systems Biology, are inherently risky and highly uncertain processes. One does not know what one will find, when working at the cutting edge and attempting to push into unknown territory.

That is why we call it the Bleeding Edge….

It is a long term gain game. Much like Angel Capital investments, any short-term economic benefits are welcome byproducts, but are not the main “deliverables” that can be planned on. Long Term however it’s all roses.

Nor is cutting-edge research a significant job creation in the short term, but the pioneering new ways of working, the solutions to come, and the models of future workplaces, which require novel skills, technologies, and knowledge that will diffuse widely into society and transform production and services, is what we are aiming for to create long term high numbers of valuable jobs and an intelligent society with a workforce to match our aspirations for the future. And this leads to a virtuous cycle that will adhere to the same principles of scientific Reason and lead to further growth spurs of Innovation and growth through further and continuous Research & Development.

Public Research and Development of Bleeding Edge Science, iss the only thing that could lead to Climate Change solutions, by developing more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient uses of our diminishing natural resources, and through long term investments in products and services, that are ever more responsive to meeting human needs, providing for human health, and are better attuned to human interaction and healthy societal experiences, within a healthy Ecosystem.

Further it is good to remember that Science is the only civic institution with a built-in long-term time horizon – a feature that builds confidence in a time of fragile futures for our World today. Our Environment is similarly on a built-in long-term horizon but with short term ecozones that need to be measured, managed and respected through scientific protocols — much as we administer medications to a patient… Carefully

Ancient empirical Science, and modern Medicine, began with the Greeks 2400 years ago and with only a few thousand people being internally involved in these pure mind pursuits. But modern science began during the European Enlightenment some 300 years ago, by revisiting the old texts and shuffling off from there. But it was a lonely effort with relatively far fewer people – perhaps no more than a thousand.

And this number was the grand total of all the people involved, when the putative scientific revolution was in full swing. These folk began to engage in the systematic inquiry of how the natural world and to a lesser extent, the social world, functioned. They observed Nature and recorded her. They managed their results through careful analysis of experimentation and obtained always fresh new knowledge of how to manipulate and intervene in the observable natural processes. The experimental practices that they invented spread beyond the laboratories. Later, they began to underpin and merge with progress in the crafts to drive forward the Industrial Revolution.

The idea that we can only know what we can make and observe in certifiable results, gained wide acceptance. New tools provide new means of investigation, enabling researchers to speed up computation, for example, and hence increase the production of new knowledge. Science and technology mutually reinforced each other, and both percolated deep within the social fabric. This was the case in 1700, and it remains true today.

But today we deny these facts of the trade and the means to keep our Scientific Progress and stock in trade of Civilization going.

Here in America we are prevented from doing Neo-natal stem cell research and we are prevented from seeking Genetic variants research, and advance in cloning and AI with human brain developments, due to religious and archaic prohibitions based purely on religion & ideology and not on fact or REASON.

Let us now look forward towards the future, when our planet will probably be home to at least nine billion people by 2050. Six billion will live in Asia, one billion in Africa, 1.5 billion in the Americas, and 500 million in Europe.

By ensuring that the pursuit of new scientific knowledge remains a high priority, and placing adequate resources at it’s disposal — Europe and America can safeguard the scientific evolutionary progress and retain a leading edge globally, despite having fewer people, fewer scientists, and fewer engineers, and far resources than other regions and their competitors across the World.

But by refusing to develop resources and policies to support Science and Technology Bleeding Edge Research — Europe’s and America’s scientific institutions that are already evolving and adapting to new impoverished standard of Existence amid global challenges and economic irrelevance — will wither on the vine…

Today the head of NASA in Congress is a staunch Christian Taliban and anti-science luddite, who will stop at nothing to gut the Agency for Space and Planetary exploration. He doesn’t stop at nothing to destroy NASA’s reputation and Earth observation and Climate Change work in order to fit with his Neanderthal needs to not hear the words “Climate Change” spoken in his presence.

Somewhat the same is the story of the person responsible for the EPA budget. It is inconceivable to see that the functional head of the Environmental Protection Agency of America does not believe in Environmental and Earth Sciences, and he certainly doe not believe we have to face Climate Change either. Pitiful reptilian brain that does not see anything else but his addiction to fossil fuels and the money “earned” from their lobbyists

And truth be told this is not the usual backlash to the scientific and technological advances made daily. The Internet and Telecommunications, the advance in Health Sciences and Life Expectancy are all Great & Good but they can all be reversed in a moment’s notice too.

And am afraid this is the case here because this is an organized and regressive movement to the Dark Ages that are already descending upon us and those who have eyes can see this as the lowest point of our beginning to the end of our existence in the last 700 years on progress.

Yet still my hope is that even in the dark ages  that are sure to come — ordinary people working within science and people working with technology, will assure that the unending quest for human betterment continues to be an important part of our All Too Human effort at last minute survival.

And that is why we are having Angel Funds to invest & support the scientific progress and the evolutionary growth of technological advancement through business and sustainable innovation. Because I believe we are still Homo Sapiens and sapient beings are always thinking in scientific terms to arrive at logical solutions.

And because the thing is that Science alone will not save America, nor Europe, nor anyone else in the rest of the World… as we are here to manage our own affairs and invest our resources in order to help others grow and prosper, since at this time of intense Climate Change, it is rather obvious that the People who will be saved will be those who know how to put Science to work to solve the Big Problems we are facing…

Yours,
Dr Kroko

PS:
And then there was China…

And as it appears right now the first official mission to Mars will be funded from China, and it will be led by the People’s Red Army…

Go Figure.