Sunday, May 27, 2007
Technology Crossroads
Here is my premise. Technology has been allowed to "evolve" over time based on open market forces. The best technology implementations are usually driven by user requirement specs. How can society drive technological development to obtain the benefits that we all want?
Consider how many man hours are devoted to creating a financial applications. Realistically how many accounts payable packages are required in the world? Shouldn't this effort go into solving some of the challenges we see in the world.
I've been researching and dabbling in writing the user requirements for how the world should be but it's huge and not really a a one person job. There are a lot of innovative ideas and maybe some off-the-wall ideas but if we don't say we want it, it will never be done.
As an example, I think we are working on the wrong end of the global warming problem. People talk about CO2 reduction targets. How about better carbon fixing methods? OK plants are ideal but maybe we can create artificial carbon fixing using nanotechnology that would only need sun and no water. These could go into the deserts. There are some people looking at fixing carbon by creating fuels from electricity during off peak times. The problem is they are looking at it from producing a fuel product that can compete in the market on price. They don't get paid anything for removing CO2 from the air. Hmmm, maybe our economics aren't really aligned to user requirements.
Topic headings for write up include genetic engineering, democracy/government, intellectual property, recreation, biometrics, RFID, and more.
My crossroads is how do I get it out there? Traditional try to find a publisher and write to deadlines (does anyone know one who would be interested?) Self-publish chapter by chapter online and hope that I can create a way fund it (Paypal?). Try an online publisher? Put it on a website and try to get ad sponsors? Let me know what you think.
Consider how many man hours are devoted to creating a financial applications. Realistically how many accounts payable packages are required in the world? Shouldn't this effort go into solving some of the challenges we see in the world.
I've been researching and dabbling in writing the user requirements for how the world should be but it's huge and not really a a one person job. There are a lot of innovative ideas and maybe some off-the-wall ideas but if we don't say we want it, it will never be done.
As an example, I think we are working on the wrong end of the global warming problem. People talk about CO2 reduction targets. How about better carbon fixing methods? OK plants are ideal but maybe we can create artificial carbon fixing using nanotechnology that would only need sun and no water. These could go into the deserts. There are some people looking at fixing carbon by creating fuels from electricity during off peak times. The problem is they are looking at it from producing a fuel product that can compete in the market on price. They don't get paid anything for removing CO2 from the air. Hmmm, maybe our economics aren't really aligned to user requirements.
Topic headings for write up include genetic engineering, democracy/government, intellectual property, recreation, biometrics, RFID, and more.
My crossroads is how do I get it out there? Traditional try to find a publisher and write to deadlines (does anyone know one who would be interested?) Self-publish chapter by chapter online and hope that I can create a way fund it (Paypal?). Try an online publisher? Put it on a website and try to get ad sponsors? Let me know what you think.
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