Andre-Marie Ampere, a parent of electromagnetism and for whom the unit of measure of electrical current is named, also wrote a book called Considerations On The Mathematical Theory of Chance. The book proves that the more you gamble, the lower your odds of winning against the house. Someone’s got to tell those oil-industry geophysicists to stop blowing their wads at Harrah’s.

The only risks that the US run are:

(a) conservatism/orthodoxy (freaking out and becoming increasingly xenophobic – happened to the Hindus during Muslim invasions of India and look what that did to Hindu feminism – went down the toilet),

(b) laziness – too many consumers reliant on the creativity of too few producers, and

(c) the joke that is higher education where one learns useless facts to get a piece of paper leading to a dead-end job that has already gone abroad, but not how to learn.

MSH: “I hate to tell you, but innovation has become UnAmerican.”

The current state of American education is to provide the resources by which the well above average high school student can continue on to get vocational-technological training [this used to be called an education of the Vo-Tech variety, where they trained mechanics, and other skilled workers] to achieve the kind of job that has now been sent abroad to be done for a daily wage in China, India, etc., that is lower than the minimum hourly wage in the United States. i.e.– by the time you grow up and get the education to pursue the careers you chose as a child, those careers will have been outsourced!!!

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is my undergraduate alma mater. We watched with alternating boredom and glee as the Beckman Artificial Intelligence Institute and Grainger Engineering Library went up, and clogged two of CU’s ten or so main traffic arteries. The complex is also situated a block away from my old high school. Check it out at sc.cs.uiuc.edu/index.php This new development is even more amusing:

From /.:

The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, one of the top Computer Science programs in the world has just officially opened their new $80 million Siebel Center (with its own espresso bar! –the Ed). The department head describes the building as a single computing entity, meant to be programmed and to interact with those in the building via RFID tags in their ID cards. This is probably one of the biggest and most expensive projects in ubiquitous computing ever launched, touching on all the important issues in this field, from privacy to the ultimate question about the usefulness of such a system. Several papers are covering this including the Chicago Sun Times, and the Chicago Business.

/. responds:

• So will they use the java smart cards that work when approaching a computer?
• I’m sorry Dave, I can’t let you in. Your GPA is too low this semester.
• Does that mean the building is wildly overpriced and requires expensive consultants in suits to do anything right?
• I’m not sure if I like the idea that anything between me and these 4 walls is now between me and some sort of ubiquitous building-computer.
• The UIUC bldg sounds extremely cool, but in 5 yrs folks will be smiling politely at the “hokey-ness” of the place.
• I guess they had to go and install “Microsoft Office… that is, REAL Office”. Now, when you go down the hall, the “Buildy” mascot asks things like. “You appear to be walking to the bathroom. Would you like some help?”
• This proves the point that all things human go in cycles. First computers were the size of buildings, then they shrunk down to fit in the palm, now they are becoming the size of buildings again.
• How much their next upgrade is gonna cost??
• This building isn’t an effort to revive a program (currently ranked #3 in Engineering, #3 in ECE, and #5 in CS), it’s a natural step taking to increase the facilities available to accommodate recent advances by the University, and a continuously growing program which time and time again excels in all areas.

Archimedes was one cool guy. I just don’t believe that the world had to wait almost two millenia for another of equal prowess (Newton) to come along. Of course, this is celebrating only the western branch of science.