Citation
Loughlin, C. (2009), "Researching the future", Industrial Robot, Vol. 36 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2009.04936daa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Researching the future
Article Type: Editorial From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 36, Issue 4
In these financially challenging times there is a natural tendency to batten down the hatches and keep a low profile, hoping that things will improve. However, I am pleased to see that governments are planning to invest in large infrastructure projects, both to repair the neglect of the past and to create employment to compensate for the loss of jobs elsewhere.
If asked to come up with a list of the five biggest problems facing our world today most people would, I think, put climate change and pollution, energy needs and depletion of natural resources pretty high on the list. However, a third of the world’s population is without adequate basic sanitation, and if you are part of that third you probably do not lose too much sleep worrying about the planet as a whole.
With so many big problems around for which we already have the resources and knowledge to provide a ready made solution, it can be hard to justify research – but in my view that is exactly what we should be doing. One example of this was announced recently. The development of techniques that enabled the production of stem cells without involving the harvesting of human fetus is potentially a massive step forward in the development of bioengineering and possible cures for serious illnesses, as it leap-frogs the ethical issues. Rather than engage in cyclic arguments it is far better to look beyond the existing knowledge base and target research that will transcend the immediate difficulties.
Wikipedia define blue skies research as “scientific research in domains where ‘real-world’ applications are not immediately apparent”. How can we possibly justify spending money on projects that have no apparent benefit when faced with very immediate and very “real-world” difficulties for which we already have a technical solution?
Fortunately history is littered with good examples from the transistor and liquid crystal displays to the stem cell research that preceded the recent developments. As it happens I am studying astronomy at night classes at the moment and we have discussed the merits of space travel. The nearest star system to our own is α Centauri which is a mere 4.37 light years away. At the moment our space craft can travel at about 36,000 miles per hour which means that if we did set off with today’s technology it would take about 80,000 years to get there.
Considering the rate of technological development in the last hundred years it is not unreasonable to assume that within another 100 years we would be able to double the speed of our rockets. If we sent off a rocket today doing 36,000 mph and another in one hundred years time doing 72,000 mph then the second rocket would overtake the first rocket after the first rocket had been going for 200 years. This would be seriously demoralising for the tenth generation of crew on the first rocket.
On this basis it would never be worthwhile setting off because someone setting off later would always arrive first. But this misses the point that it is only by developing the first rocket that the second rocket gets built at all.
Our future depends on the quality of our research, if we have no research then we also have no future.
Clive Loughlin