...opportunities. For example, the emergence of modern biotech, where we treat [health problems]... by looking at our genome and [asking] what are the implications of that kind of genome and how does the chemistry in our body works. That's a transformational event in the history of biology. We're just in the beginning of that, and that's going to play out over the next 20, 30, 50 years.
In terms of materials, we can now design materials at the atomic level, atom by atom; we couldn't do that 20 or 30 years ago. And even in IT, we're beginning to create computers that are as fast as the human brain. By 2020 or 2030 the desktop computer will have more raw computing power than the human brain. So, at that point, you're going to have a different kind of relationship with your computer; it's going to be much more intelligent.
What does that mean for the US?
Well, it is a world of abundance. I have never seen greater opportunities in my career, in every field. And so for example, the Internet is still not fast enough, it's not secure, it's not trusted, and it's not safe. We need a whole new Internet.
We have new infectious diseases. We have the issue of aging and how we help people live a higher quality of life as they get older. The environment — we don't have clean energy yet. All of these things... you can see on the horizon, and they're going to give way under just wave after wave of new innovations. In order to take advantage of those opportunities you have to have the right skills.
I was reading the other day that since 1950, the five-year period with the greatest increase of productivity has been the last five years, and productivity is the precursor to growth, prosperity and quality of life. Now that's amazing when you consider 9/11, which is when [the US] lost almost $1tr from events like the war on terror, the oil shock, Katrina and the Internet bubble [bursting].
I think it is because America has been adapting to this expediential economy better than most economies. Silicon Valley... exemplifies that.
There seems to be a scarcity of engineering talent in the Valley. How do you compete for people with companies like Google, and in your mind, what's the solution to that?
We are not producing enough computer scientists in the United States. The numbers have... gone slightly negative over the last 10 years, which I think... is really inappropriate given the opportunities. Part of it... [is] education, and the media doesn't help this issue because it's always projecting doom and gloom as opposed to abundance.
The way we compete here at SRI is we give people the chance to work on really important problems, not just interesting ones... So I think SRI is somewhat unique in allowing our employees to make the biggest impact they are capable of... That's a very unusual thing.
What do you think the solution is technologically in the classroom?
In terms of the technologies, we think there is an opportunity... with small PDA-like devices. Computers in the classroom are too much — too distracting, too expensive, [breakable]. But a small device, you know, surrounded by rubber that ultimately costs $20 and [could be] networked in to the student and the teacher up front. You can begin to have real-time interactive learning.
So the teacher says, "Draw a parabola." Everybody draws a parabola and the teacher knows instantly what percentage of the students understood. Whereas today, he or she wouldn't know that, so they have to go around individually sampling the classrooms. So if 80 percent of the students got it wrong, then the teacher probably would want to go back and review what a parabola looks like.
That's an example of the kind of thing that we are working hard to develop with our partners like Microsoft, Intel, Scholastic, TI, Palm.
Scientific research has taken a hit in the US, with labs at NASA being cut and so forth. How does SRI fit into the landscape?
I think the state of scientific research in America right now is...
