Each morning at the gym, while on an elliptical, I read a book. I'm currently reading The Extreme Future by Dr. James Canton. I will have the opportunity to meet Dr. Canton at CompTIA's annual membership conference, Breakaway, in two weeks, so I'm aggressively reading through to the end.
This morning, I was reading a section that was talking about future medical trends. The gist of this chapter revolves around the stem cell opportunity that this country is actively missing out on. Politics aside, the author writes that because this Administration has refused to fund stem cell research, much of the money and a frightening amount of the brain power in this country is moving to Europe and Asia. The one notable exception to this is a California law that supports and allows stem cell research. The author contends that the US economy, influence and national security are likely to suffer if we don't correct this course. It's too complex to cover in a short post like this, but if you have any interest in this topic or concern for our national health, both physical and in the world, I encourage you to get and read this book.
Being a political science major that focused on national security issues at the time, what concerns me most is that the rationale behind the Administrations stem cell arguments don't seem that far off, ideologically, from the very extremist ideologies we fear most and are actively combating. It concern me that this irony is not more widely discussed in our country.
What does any of this have to do with IT? At one level nothing, at another everything. You should read the book to see how this issue and IT interrelate. It's a fascinating read.
