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Is the U.S. overdue for a technological breakthrough?
Posted Jul 15th 2009 5:30PM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: Forecasts, Technology


To say the least, the last 18 months haven't been the most robust times for the U.S economy.

Still, perhaps this is just my American upbringing, or my innate realist-that-hopes-for-the-best outlook, but even when economic activity is at a low point, and when headlines are filled with underperformance - and even outright fraud and theft by business officials -- I still expect the American system to produce that game-changer -- that breakthrough technology, or new sector, or even new way of doing business, that sets the wheels of
commerce in motion.

Of course, this decade has not been at a loss for new technologies -- the advances in smart technology applications and mobile communications provide testimony to that -- but the view from here argues we're still one or two innovations or breakthroughs away from getting the U.S. economy moving again... and restoring order, if you will, to the economic universe.

Is something 'really big' ahead?

Perhaps that innovation will occur in the auto sector. I, for one, am still concerned as to why that breakthrough, next-generation car has not appeared yet -- i.e. a low-weight car that gets 50 miles per gallon on the highway, and has the durability/quality, ride, and handling of a BMW 7-Series.

Perhaps the breakthrough will occur in electric power transmission. We're still transmitting power on essentially the same type of wires that we did 30 years ago. Why is it that a cheap, durable, room-temperature superconductor - one that would dramatically lower power costs -- hasn't been developed yet?

In other words, by my timetable, we're overdue for innovation: not something big, something 'really big,' to borrow a famous line from actor William Shatner.