The Story of Technology: How We Got Here and What the Future Holds

by Daniel M. Gerstein

First, the United States must become a better consumer of technology and get used to living in a world where it might not lead in all technology areas. This will likely be necessary, as the cost for leading in all critical areas (and the subcomponent technologies) would undoubtedly be unaffordable. We have already seen this occur in several areas, such as biotechnology, where China leads in high-throughput sequencing capacity and the United States (at least for now) leads in synthetic biology. The same can be said of cybersecurity, where the United States, Russia, China, and Israel all have strengths in some sub-areas, but there does not appear to be one clear leader. Second, setting priorities for science and technology will be imperative to ensure the highest priorities are funded, gain an understanding of where the gaps in R&D are, and assess where the work of others can be incorporated into the efforts of US government and industry. For areas where the United States wants to gain or retain a strategic advantage, infusion of resources, leadership focus, and developing priorities will be essential. However, setting priorities such as the publication of national strategies in technology areas such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence will do little if these strategies are not appropriately resourced. Unfortunately, many White House or department and agency strategies often contain only objectives, with little detail on how they will actually be accomplished. In mi...