When Molecules Fly: Is Government Repeating the 'Space Program' Mistake?
FYI,
"When Molecules Fly"
Tech Central Station
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-051503B
: Should the federal government fund scientific research with taxpayer
: dollars? Boondoggles like the Superconducting Supercollider, the
: space station, energy research programs, the Supersonic Transport
: plane, and numerous other examples of corporate and scientific pork
: argue for leaving such efforts to free enterprise.
: Eight years ago Congress seemed to agree. Upon the release of the
: "Contract With America" to reduce the size of government in
: Washington, the first Republican Congress in 40 years proposed
: sweeping reforms like privatizing national laboratories and
: government research programs. There was even legislation to create
: a Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission, an attempt, modeled on the
: military base closing commission, to curb billions in handouts to
: private companies, i.e., business welfare.
: But now Republican advocacy of science pork is back. Exhibit A for
: 2003 is nanotechnology, the cutting-edge science of direct
: manipulation of matter at the molecular level. Government wants to
: get involved in a big way, despite companies such as IBM, Hewlett
: Packard and Intel - and numerous venture capitalists - already
: taking the lead.
: The field sports its share of hype: Surely, promised "nanobots" to
: attack cancers and other human ailments - or even repair cellular
: damage and revive cryogenically frozen human beings - remain in the
: far-distant future. Similarly, the proposed "Starlight Express"
: carbon-nanotube elevator to outer space - from a NASA-funded outfit
: called Highlift Systems - belongs to the realm of science fiction.
: Meanwhile, the ETC Group, while alarmed about the potential hazards
: of unrestrained nanotechnology, points out that yearly scientific
: citations to "nano" have grown nearly 40-fold, the number of
: nano-related patents is surging, and nine nanotechnology-related
: Nobel prizes have been awarded since 1990.
: To many in Congress, what's needed is not a free hand for technology
: entrepreneurs to explore this blossoming field, but government
: money. President Bush's proposed 2004 fiscal year budget for the
: National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is $847 million, a
: 9.5 percent increase over 2003. The NNI was created by the Bush
: administration in 2001. In addition, the House Science Committee
: just authorized a $2.4 billion funding program for nanotechnology,
: and the full House is likely to approve it. That's not huge by
: Washington standards, but such programs only grow.
: Politicians have no innate ability to pick among competing
: technologies, whether nano, macro or otherwise. If they did, they'd
: be entrepreneurs themselves. And they're particularly bad at the job
: when using taxpayer money. Politicians can merely transfer wealth,
: which automatically invites wasteful pork-barreling to propel funds
: to one's home state. Scientific merit need not carry the day. But
: even if it did, taxpayers should get to decide for themselves which
: technologies to invest in.
: Nanotechnology is plainly viable on its own, moving forward on
: fronts too numerous to catalog, all seeking to make breakthroughs
: before others. Nanotech venture capitalist Josh Wolfe told Wired
: magazine that most business proposals he sees now have "nano" in the
: title. Venture capitalists have plowed in hundreds of millions of
: dollars over the past five years. And according to the National
: Science Foundation, the market in nanotech products could be
: $1 trillion a year by 2015. That's nearly 10 percent the size of
: today's gross domestic product.
: The vigorous calls for government research seem in part a reaction
: to the technology market downturn. But we ought not look for a
: technology savior in emergent biotech or nanotech spawned in
: government labs. Forthcoming technologies should be products of
: capitalism and entrepreneurship, not central planning, government
: R&D, and pork barrel. Tomorrow's nanotechnology markets have too
: much potential and are too important be creatures of government.
: It's still early enough in this particular pork game to stop it
: before it goes any further. My Cato Institute colleague Tom Miller
: put it best when asked by technology reporter Declan McCullagh about
: federal nanotechnology funding: "I suggest giving them nanodollars."
: Wayne Crews is director of technology policy at the Cato Institute,
: www.cato.org .
--
Mark Reiff e-mail: markreiff@earthlink.net
web site: Space Space^tm http://www.space-space.com
Join my Yahoo space forums:
Space Entrepreneurs For Bush
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spaceentrepreneursforbush
Commercial Space Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/commercialspaceplace
Space Travel Bureau http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spacetravelbureau
Space Policy Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spacepolicyplace
Space Architecture http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spaceachitecture
Space Chamber of Commerce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spacechamberofcommerce
Financing Space http://groups.yahoo.com/group/financingspace
Space Enthusiast Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spaceenthusiastplace
Solar Power Satellite Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarpowersatelliteplace
Space Education Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spaceeducationplace
Space Media Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spacemediaplace
Internet Space Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internetspaceplace
Space Technology Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spacetechnologyplace
A Risky Space Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ariskyspaceplace
Moral Values in Space Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moralvaluesinspaceplace
Space Labor Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spacelaborplace
National Defense Space Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nationaldefensespaceplace
Space Operations Place
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spaceoperationsplace
Public Space Place http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publicspaceplace
--
Space Future | To unsubscribe send email with the subject "unsubscribe"
www.spacefuture.com | to "sf-discuss-request@spacefuture.com".