Promoting the Future

One of my favorite parts of the United States Constitution is the first half of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, where it says that "The Congress shall have Power... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts..." As an artist who has worked intimately with technology in my lifetime, the idea that our Congress has a duty to 'promote' the progress of science and the useful arts is highly compelling, and I aspire to serve the public in this way, with a personal goal of membership in the Committee on Science and Technology in the United States House of Representatives [science.house.gov]. Ironically, the second half of clause 8 is one of my least favorite parts of the constitution, as it is sometimes used to prevent the progress of science or useful arts, in the interests of patent and copyright holders who desire to protect profits.
It is important to note the use of the word 'promote' instead of 'provide' in this part of the Constitution concerning the progress of science. Congress, in my opinion, has a duty to bring the best minds of the world together to help inform all of us about the future we will inhabit together, heralding the opportunities and coming advances, and warning about the roadblocks or pitfalls. Yet Congress has no Constitutional obligation to waste taxpayer money on funding technology projects; Congress should instead strive to provide a framework to protect and cultivate emerging, future-based ideas and industries so that they can thrive in our nation. I would like to lead Congress at the Committee level in discussions about: nanotechnology, alternatives to the combustion engine, online social networks, the future of handheld wireless devices, and more. These coming waves of scientific and technological progress will radically reinvent the way we live within our lifetimes, and we should be prepared.
Nanotechnology itself will severely transform the world as we know it. Many products we take for granted today may be completely obsolete in less than a decade, from just the earliest baby steps into the nanotech world. Incandescent light bulbs will soon be replaced by luminant nanocoatings. Solar panels will soon be far cheaper and collect far more energy by utilizing nanotubes. Soon, medicines using nanotechnology will be able to work with specifically targeted and identified cells in our bodies to cure them as needed, while not subjecting other healthy parts of the body to unnecessary side effects. In the longer term, nanotechnology will completely change the way we understand manufacturing. Nanomaterials will, in the coming decades, begin to replace products like steel or plastic. Objects of all sizes will be built on site and on demand by nanoassemblers, eliminating the need for transoceanic shipping and importing and exporting. The time to have these discussions is now.
The combustion engine, which has given us cars and airplanes and geopolitical problems with gasoline production and pollution, is very old and will at some point in our not too distant future be replaced by more powerful, efficient, quieter and cleaner motors not requiring today's model of fuel consumption. Congress- in the Constitutional role of promoting scientific advances- can help accelerate developments in this direction.
Social networking and internet based interaction have already radically transformed our world and will continue to do so in greater and as yet unforseen ways. Hugely successful sites on the world wide web, such as ebay.com, youtube.com and myspace.com have enabled many millions of people here and around the world to conduct business, share news or information, and simply meet and organize in ways never possible before. Citizens who understand how to reach beyond traditional communities using these environments will have a major edge in shaping the ideas, businesses and culture of the future. Congress has a role to encourage the use, understanding and growth of these network-based opportunities.
Hand-held mobile devices such as the cellphone have already become a normal part of our daily lives in just a few short years. Coming advances in this field will continue to significantly transform our world, as computational power and wireless bandwidth become radically faster, cheaper and more compact. In the not-too-distant future, young people might not be able to understand why someone would sit in front of a television or a computer, or sit in a movie theater to watch a movie, or go to a store to buy a music recording, when these things could be done anywhere at any moment on a whim. The world will be a very different place when one hundred million people have cellphone video cameras in their pockets, ready to send any one of us imagery of events as they actually happen. That moment will come very, very soon.
Here's an example of some of these advances put into practical terms: Imagine a farmer out tending to their crops. The farmer finds a new, unknown pest or disease on some of their plants. While still in the field, the farmer can shoot video of the problem with their cellphone, and immediately send it to a discussion group of other farmers; network-based discussions of the problem could and would ensue, as well as various ways of coping with the problem; it's possible the farmer could find someone nearby- or on the other side of the world- that has a suitable remedy for sale. Imagine, that while the farmer is still in the field with a newly discovered problem, someone could already be delivering a product to solve it, saving the farmer's crops, and creating business opportunities for the people with the solution. In the past, the farmer might have simply lost their crops to an unknown pest or disease, possibly endangering the well being of their farm, their family, and their community, even if the solution was already known and offered by someone just a couple of towns away, who were themselves looking for customers.
Our future will be much stronger if we are able to better prepare for the inevitably increasing rate of technological advances. There will always be opportunities and failures along this path; in Congress, I will work to promote greater understanding of how human progress will change our existence in the coming years.