iRenaissance

We’re due. I know we are. If not, it’s time somebody started the wheels turning on the next Renaissance. The world has been plunged into war and recession. The need for renewable resources is at a fever pitch. People are finally beginning to understand the dire need to turn this sinking ship, called Earth, around. We have so many bright people in this world working on innovations, but who really cares how small my iPod is or whether or not I can watch en entire season of The Office online? It’s time to start working on the infrastructure of our societies and reshape our destiny. We’ve become so cut off from the community, hiding behind our technology. It’s time to collaborate as a world to solve our most threatening problems.

It’s so close if you think about it. Across the globe, little movements towards a greater existence are occurring without even making us aware of their total impact. Tiny discoveries in gadgetry should be thought of as possible components for larger use application. Style should be mixed with function in our designs for buildings and roadways. However, let us not builds Towers of Babel but a Rocks of Gibraltar. Let us draw on the successes of our predecessors without ignoring their foibles lest we repeat their mistakes. As we move forward in innovation, let us not ignore where we have been. We have to be cognizant of disaster recovery and business continuance on a global scale. Preventative steps should be taken to guard against destruction of agricultural farms, not just server farms. Let us use our knowledge of the micro to enhance the macro.

It’s all around us. Grab a copy of Time or any other publication that puts out a best of list for inventions and you can see the pieces start to fall together like a Sudoku puzzle. Why are we not getting it? There is a need for a harmony of cognitive dissonance. The idea that people all over the world have conflicting thoughts and perceptions should not be a reason for them to not share a common goal. There has to be a way to share our toys in the global sandbox. We need to stop selling ourselves short. We need to take stock of our existence and find that common ground that makes us similar.

There needs to be substantial advances in the following categories; architecture, energy, health, communication, and economics. One category is not isolated from the other. Each feeds into an overall cohesive attitude that says we have all the tools we need to solve the world’s problems, what we lack is the blueprint.

Solar, wind, and other types of renewable resources are great but the application is still far from perfect as is the development. We still need fossil fuels to run the factories that make the cars or components. Although, I do like the plants that are using methane from landfills for power.

We also need to get a handle on health care. There are way too many mistakes being made and reimbursement is a hot button issue. We have an extended lifespan, now, and we need to realize that our baby boomers are going to be around longer and so are we. I’ve personally seen a mother and daughter both living in the same assisted care facility. There needs to be some consideration for costs of supporting the elderly and technology to keep everything running smoothly.

We have an aging infrastructure in our cities and we need to look at innovative ways to improve construction without increasing our carbon footprint. Green technology being used in new construction is a start but there is also added effects on the climate. If you subscribe to the theory of global warning consider that green house gases aren’t necessarily the biggest culprit for overall temperature increase. Yeah, it doesn’t help. In fact, it exacerbates the problem. However, look at our population and use of available space. We generate a lot of energy. Energy to power all those buildings we build. Those buildings throw off energy from all the activity inside. Our cars, while expelling gases that contribute to poor air quality, expend heat and energy. Every single person is a thermal unit. With over 300 million people in the United States alone, the amount of body heat we expel has to count for something. Not to mention, when you add the rest of the world’s population. To use a horrible analogy. I keep my house around 70 degrees, year round. The heater and air conditioning work fairly well to keep this temperature. If I have family over and we are cooking dinner. I turn off the heat. Why? Because the added body heat coupled with the oven running at 350 degrees raises the temperature in the house by at least five degrees. If it’s the summertime, my air conditioning works harder than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

As far as communication goes, the Internet, wireless devices, 3G networks and the like are fine, but what happens if all that fails? There’s a great book by Richard A. Clarke called Breakpoint. Yes, it’s science fiction but it was written by former Counter Terrorism advisor under President’s Clinton and Bush the lesser. He’s been highly critical of his previous employer’s administration but then again, who hasn’t? In short the novel describes terrorists who don’t blow up buildings with planes, but isolate The United States from the rest of the world by systematically blowing up the transatlantic cables, severing our network connections. Think Live Free or Die Hard on a global scale. We need a system of business continuance in place in the event that we lose connectivity to city services, utilities, and basically anything that runs on computers connected to a network.

Perhaps there are MIT and John Hopkins’ graduates locked away in a lab somewhere with Will Hunting tinkering away on these ideas but how come we don’t know about it? We need good solutions now, while we wait for perfect solutions to be bench tested. But where are they? I know I can’t be the only one who has this thought. In fact, this whole rant is based on a combination of reading Time’s list of the 50 Greatest Inventions of 2008 mixed with a huge plate of carb-heavy pasta inducing me into a hyperglycemia induced state of Jerry Maguire preachy-ness. Now, I don’t want us to tip the scales in favor of all out catastrophe. All this talk of innovation and technology can ultimately lead to a robot uprising lead by Nexi, the Mobile, dexterous, social robot, but you’ve seen what happens when we let the financial sector get out of hand. What if the techno geeks more advanced and better funded than the ones who hacked Paris Hilton’s cell phone were able to get into the Obamaberry?

Now as I ramble on I get further away from my point and head towards the town of Luddite. I’m all for technology as a companion, but not an overall solution. I think we can return to a more classical style which will promote better acceptance utilizing what we know we can do and how we can make it more solid in design. While, I think flying cars are highly overrated in films, it cannot hurt to make them more solid and run better without having to give up quality of construction. Instead of hurtling off towards the future in one direction, maybe we need to bring the rest of our knowledge and genius with us.

OK, the pasta is wearing off and I’m coming back into focus. Actually, just take a look at that list and take note of these items. A lot of the list was fluff, in fact some weren’t even inventions, but there is good reading there. We just need something to bring it all together.

• The Global Seed Vault
• The Dynamic Tower
• Airborne Wind Power
• The Time Eater Clock
• Google's Floating Data Center
• Smog-Eating Cement