Memo to the next President of the United States.
On behalf of a few hundred million folks I thought I would share with you the following. On the almost eve of the election it seems to this futurist quite shocking that we have missed out on the you candidates talking about a central factor that has made America great: We are an Innovation Nation. Yet to follow the conflicts and insulting rhetoric from the candidates you would think this is a secret. After all, no candidate has presented his or her Innovation Nation Plan. I must have missed it. So lets review.
Innovation, from the cotton gin, to horse-less carriages, to air conditioning, big steel factories, computers, networks, mobile and on to the next robots, artificial intelligence, search engines... all of these innovations have created jobs, wealth, power and prosperity. America has led the world innovators--from mapping DNA to mobile smart phones to the Web. The US has spawned inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs and the startup universe that now extends around the world. There are now many innovation nations. America may have been the first Innovation Nation but now innovation is a productivity, GDP and jobs creation engine around the world owned by the world.
So it is baffling to me that the candidates for the US Presidency have failed to impress us with their Innovation Plan. What are the next fantastic innovations that they propose? How will America lead innovation on the planet? How will we create new innovation economy jobs and invent the new? If there was any fundamental part of the political DNA of America it would be our innovation expertise. Innovation is what we do great.
How about it? Where are the big bold ideas to colonize Mars? End global hunger? Provide distributed health care for 7 billion? Education for all. Time Travel anyone? Now I am not kidding here. As our candidates are busy throttling each other, who said politics is not a contact sport--we need to inspire them.
Here is my take. America does innovation great. We understand job creation. Disrupting industries. We owe ourselves and the world to look to the future. To solve the big grand challenges of the future like climate change, clean energy and you name it. In order to this, spur on innovation, we need to embrace the principles of the Innovation Nation.
We want our next President to understand innovation and inspire, invest and invent even ways to encourage more youth, more educators and more leaders to invent the future. What is the way forward on clean water? How might we use mobile health tech to reach millions? How can we create one million connected entrepreneurs?
The next President needs to support the innovations that will create future jobs, prosperity and invention. They should pay attention to quantum computing, synthetic biology, disease prevention, next generation robotics, the Internet of Things, big data, predictive analytics, mobile apps and artificial intelligence. We need to invest more in the innovations that will lead the world and the US.
The US has always been an Innovation Nation leader. But its time for you candidates to understand that while your battling each other the citizens of the nation want to know if you have a future vision for the nation. How about that?
The whole world is watching. Let's get the Innovation Nation vision right.