Insights Into the Exploding World of Technology
Here, my colleague Fritz Maffry offers further evidence that the technology sector of the economy can be expected to become even more dominant with each passing year. He writes:
10 years ago top R&D spenders were Auto+Pharma industries. Today Computers/Electronics and Software/Internet companies dominate.
Apple’s annual R&D spending didn’t exceed $1bn until 2009. This year it’s on pace to exceed $10bn.
Alphabet/Google’s annual R&D spending didn’t exceed $1bn until 2006. This year it’s on pace to exceed $13bn.
Amazon’s annual R&D spending didn’t exceed $1bn until 2009. This year it’s on pace to exceed $14bn.
Facebook’s annual R&D spending didn’t exceed $1bn until 2012. This year it’s on pace to exceed $6bn.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/01/26/intel-tops-chip-r-d-spending-but-industry-research.html
Samsung is spending an insane amount of money to beat Apple to the ‘next big thing’
The 10 biggest R&D spenders worldwide
NASA’s R&D budget is ~$5bn
What is the annual budget for the Department of Energy?
In total, the Budget provides $27.9 billion in discretionary funds for DOE to support its mission, a 2.6 percent increase over the 2014 enacted level. The Budget includes $11.7 billion for nuclear security, a four percent increase over the 2014 enacted level.
The President’s Fiscal Year 2016 Budget provides a total of $94.7 billion in discretionary and mandatory funding in 2016 for the Department of Transportation.
DARPA’s FY2016 enacted budget is $2.87 billion. The President’s FY2017 budget request for DARPA is $2.97 billion.
We need to make things in America to have things invented here and we need to fine countries and companies that steal our intellectual property. We are almost a 3rd world country with the trade and budget deficits and lack of manufacturing……………
Fining countries which steal our intellectual property sounds like a good idea, but how could we do that? Before attempting to impose a fine, it would be necessary to have some investigative body determine that our intellectual property had actually been stolen. The other country could claim that it was something that they came up with at the same time since that does sometimes actually occur. Then, once it had been determined that our intellectual property actually had been stolen, the international community would also have to be convinced else we could be accused of misrepresenting the situation. Next, a reasonable penalty would have to be determined after which it would have to be imposed in some manner.
Perhaps a way could be found to do all of the above. It may even be that there is already a procedure in place. But without knowing how such things are done, it seems to me that it would not be easy.
Technological advances have greatly improved the quality of our lives. The improvements most visibly began about the year 1800 as steam power was developed; it replaced animal and human power. Of course, technology has also created problems.
There are those who assert that because of the problems created by technology, the solution is not even more technology, but rather, returning to the ways of the past. I wonder just how much they know about the past.
In movies and on TV, we see reproductions of how life supposedly was in the past. However, in watching Sherlock Holmes programs on TV, the nice clean streets we see are most definitely are not what they would have been in the past. Rather, in the actual past, the people would have been wading through horse manure and tracking it into their homes and other buildings. Spooked horses would have taken horse taxi riders on dangerous and frightening rides which not infrequently proved fatal. Children, working as chimney sweeps, would have been covered from head to toe with soot and coughing soot out of their damaged lungs. In cities, the air would have been thick with coal and wood smoke.
Technology has saved us from many ghastly nightmares. Although technology has created problems, further developments in technology are certain to alleviate many of the problems.