Crossposted from the New Center for Amateur Future Studies.
What is the everyday value of science and technology?
I am sometimes asked this question by other progressives when I advocate investing resources in cutting edge research. The implication is usually that the resources could be better used to feed, shelter, or provide basic services for people today. My position is that we can do both. Investing in science and technology lets us find new solutions to the challenges we face, and helps us to build tools and capacities for more significant change in the future. That future may be closer than we realize. As communiaction and information technologies advance, cutting edge research can be brought to market faster than ever. The following is a scenario from the near future.
October, 2015 – 04:49 GMT
Health professionals in Kang, Botswana receive information that a nearby village is experiencing an outbreak of an unknown respiratory disease, suspected to be drug-resistant tuberculosis. They immediately report the health notice to a global database maintained by the World Health Organization. Emails are exchanged on mobile devices between individuals in Geneva, New York, and Gaborone. At 05:38 – less than an hour after the initial report – a field physician prepares to depart the Médecins Sans Frontières outpost in Braamfontein, South Africa.
Advances in mobile computing and telecommunications, combined with global access to long-range wireless or satellite internet will lead to instant connectivity between individuals anywhere on Earth.
The field physician packs a backpack with the equipment she will need, and secures it in the cargo compartment of her vehicle, a high-speed, single-seater, electric aerocar. She programs the coordinates of the village into the GPS software of her mobile phone and wirelessly connects it with the car’s controls. She straps into the driver’s seat and lifts off from a strip of highway near the outpost.
The prototype for the ParaJet SkyCar recently completed its inaugural 7,000 km journey from London to Timboctou. Its design could influence the coming first generation of personal aviation.
One hour into her flight the physician notices the sun is far enough above the horizon to switch to the aerocar’s solar power systems. Every surface of the vehicle is coated with photovoltaic paint, and the wing is made from photovoltaic fabric. While the vehicle’s digital quantum batteries give it more than enough power for the roundtrip journey, there’s no reason to waste the sunlight. The car’s solar power systems allow her to operate at full speed – nearly 170 kilometers per hour – and significantly reduce the drain on the batteries. At 12:32 the physician is nearing the end of her journey, having traveled almost one thousand kilometers. She brings the car down for a gentle landing in a grassy field, retracts and stores the fabric wing, and drives toward the village.
Glitter sized photovoltaic cells could be blended into a conductive paint or sewn into a fabric to make any surface a source of electricity. Combined with advances in digital quantum batteries, electric devices and motors may soon see an exponential increase in single charge lifespan.
Upon arrival she is met by a young man on a bicycle, who guides her to the village hall, where some of the sick are being attended to. The physician extracts a small blood sample from one of them, and places it on a glass slide. She pulls out her mobile phone and activates its magnetic occlusion microscope software. With an attachment the size of a film canister she is able to take a high magnification image of the blood cells in the sample. A few moments of satellite uplink allow her to send the image digitally to a laboratory in Geneva.
Researchers at UCLA have developed a remarkably small and cost-effective option for microscopy in the field. The attachment uses a mobile phone’s camera to produce a high magnification cellular shadow image.
Eight hours after the initial report – it’s now 12:49 – the physician receives a text message via satellite on her mobile phone. The message contains the results of the lab analysis, which confirms that the illness is a strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis, and includes a recommended treatment regimen. The field physician composes a report on her mobile phone and sends it via email back to the outpost. A truck is loaded in Gaborone with the necessary equipment and pharmaceuticals. It will arrive the next day. The physician pulls three bottles from her backpack. Each bottle contains a nanoscale filtration system capable of removing 100% of harmful viruses and bacteria from any liquid. The bottles will give the villagers a safe source of fresh water for drinking and bathing until the outbreak has passed.
The filtering bottles and jerrycans from Lifesaver Systems can provide thousands of liters of sterile water for drinking and bathing, at a very low price.
The disease is contained and hundreds of lives have been saved.
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These are real technologies being developed today. Every dollar invested in science and research can pay incredible dividends. No progressive should feel guilty about purchasing a smartphone, advanced computer, or any other cutting edge technology. These things are more than toys – they are the immediate ancestors of vitally useful tools. Public funding for science and the development of a high-tech economy are goals any progressive should be able to get behind.