![]() We started this event in 2010 with a simple premise: We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated but the winner of the science fair. Think like the kids I meet every year at the White House Science Fair. Think like you did when you were watching Star Trek or Star Wars or Inspector Gadget. The point is, we need today’s big thinkers thinking big. Not just making our social networks more fun for sharing memes but also harnessing their power to counter terrorist ideologies and online hate speech. ![]() Not just inventing a service that fills your car with gas but also creating cars that don’t need fossil fuels at all. That means creating not just a quicker way to deliver takeout downtown but also a system that distributes excess produce to communities where too many kids go to bed hungry. Not just for those of us who are fortunate, but for everybody. That’s how we will overcome the challenges we face: by unleashing the power of all of us for all of us. And most important, we need not only the folks at MIT or Stanford or the NIH but also the mom in West Virginia tinkering with a 3-D printer, the girl on the South Side of Chicago learning to code, the dreamer in San Antonio seeking investors for his new app, the dad in North Dakota learning new skills so he can help lead the green revolution. ![]() We need researchers and academics and engineers programmers, surgeons, and botanists. ![]() And to accelerate that change, we need science. Just as in the past, to clear these hurdles we’re going to need everyone-policy makers and community leaders, teachers and workers and grassroots activists, presidents and soon-to-be-former presidents. Cancer, Alzheimer’s, and antibiotic-resistant superbugs. I wanted to explore how we get past where we are today to build a world that’s even better for us all-as individuals, as communities, as a country, and as a planet.īecause the truth is, while we’ve made great progress, there’s no shortage of challenges ahead: Climate change. That’s why I centered this issue on the idea of frontiers-stories and ideas about what’s over the next horizon, about what lies on the other side of the barriers we haven’t broken through yet. And even if we’ve got some work left to do on faster-than-light travel, I still believe science and technology is the warp drive that accelerates that kind of change for everybody. I believe we can work together to do big things that raise the fortunes of people here at home and all over the world. What I loved about it was its optimism, the fundamental belief at its core that the people on this planet, for all our varied backgrounds and outward differences, could come together to build a better tomorrow. I’m a guy who grew up watching Star Trek-and I’d be lying if I said that show didn’t have at least some small influence on my worldview. But what really grabbed me about the film is that it shows how humans-through our ingenuity, our commitment to fact and reason, and ultimately our faith in each other-can science the heck out of just about any problem. Of course, I’m predisposed to love any movie where Americans defy the odds and inspire the world. It’s why my favorite movie of last year was The Martian. But given the chance to immerse myself in the possibility of interplanetary travel or join a deep-dive conversation on artificial intelligence, I’m going to say yes. I know it’s the height of election season, and I happen to have a day job that keeps me pretty busy. When WIRED asked me to guest-edit the November issue, I didn’t hesitate.
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