Part of the problem is EPA's growing portfolio of homeland security research, such as creating new technology for protecting water treatment plants.
In 2009, Kik Interactive was founded by a group of students who wished to create new technologies for use on mobile smartphones; it has gone on to become an incredible success.
But there were hints that Mr. Rubin could join Google X, the company's lab for creating new technologies like driverless cars, Google glasses and other wearable technologies.
If anyone thinks of the new explorers as grown-up children playing with expensive toys, ocean veterans reply that there is ample scientific justification for creating new technologies that can regularly plumb the full depth of the ocean, which covers more than 70 percent of the planet yet remains poorly explored.
And Netafim, the Israeli company that pioneered drip irrigation, has created new technologies in Jharkhand specifically calibrated for the small family farms scattered across India.
As long as we maintain a free market, and there is incentive to create new technologies, I see no reason for tech productivity to slow down.
We need to bring in a new class of players on the playing field of technology who will create new technology exclusively for solving social problems and adapt the existing technology for the same purpose, without any thought of making personal profit out of this.
The biggest surprise of the decade was the way big, nasty business not only woke up to its responsibilities, but took over from government as the green pioneers, leading the way in energy savings and creating new sustainable technologies for its shareholders and customers.
And with the company's planned robot races, there will be ways for audiences in the stands to shape the course of the race, potentially by throwing augmented reality obstacles onto the track for the autonomous cars to avoid — creating new challenges for technology to be put through its paces.
These 50 towns will be cutting carbon emissions, displacing foreign oil, creating new markets for green technologies and saving money on energy costs.
