Fate of Silicon Valley: Random Notes

From Business Week’s coverage of the TechNet summit:

“We are falling further and further behind in innovation,” said John Doerr. Six problems that he says will cause the U.S. to lose leadership in technology and innovation if they aren’t addressed:

• a neglected educational system;
• insufficient research and development;
• a lackadaisical push for high-speed Internet access or broadband;
• an anti-free-trade attitude;
• poorly organized health care;
• the absence of a plan for lessening U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources.

Here’s a quote from the comments in the BusinessWeek article: “As long as the Americans treat pop stars and basketball players as the greatest beings in their lives, as long as their ignorance about things outside of their country festers, and as long as high school graduation is treated as a great achievement, innovation in America might continue to decline and become a thing of the past.”

Esther Dyson seems to have similar concerns as what I had expressed earlier in Affluenza.

On the energy topic, I recently went to a fantastic talk by a Professor from MIT, who painted a dismal picture of the situation. It made me wonder if India / China start putting hyper affordable cars on the roads (like Ratan Tata’s $2000 every-person’s car), how much more acute would the global energy crisis become!