Hope,Gratitude, and Advancement ...

With all of the ongoing complaints and dissent raging across the globe there are somethings that give me hope that all is not lost and eventually we will muddle our way through our problems and emerge stronger. It's often said that all men are created equal but that is not really true. People may be equal in somethings but there are definitely people who rise above the rest.

•  Physics Researchers. There are probably only about 200 people on the planet at one time capable of truly understanding the in-depth physics that govern our existence . And probably only about 10 people who are smart enough to push the envelope in proposing  new theories of the unknown. I'm primarily talking about high energy physics and real world application of this science.  The more we understand about the universe around us the better off we will be. In a relatively short time span we have learned how to take advantage of the electric-magnetic properties and nuclear properties present in our reality. Starting with crude radio and radar technology 90 years ago to today's nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, and intricate satellite and signal processing technologies. These technologies are all based on the original theories propagated by physicists.
• Computer Science Engineers. I'm not talking about the .NET or SQL Server developers. I'm talking about those people responsible for the design and implementation of CPU technology, hardware-software interfaces, and electronic messaging theory and application. This group of engineers are also in a very tiny minority of the world population but they have provided the rest of us with so much. Just the level of abstraction required to manipulate computer instruction sets into a combination of 0's and 1's is astounding. We have went from entering instruction sets using manual physical switches,raw binary values, and assembly languages to being able to use natural language based command sets to build programs capable of executing processes and controlling hardware. The impact of computer technology on human society has been huge and is still progressing thanks to these intelligent computer scientists.
• Bio-Science Engineers. I rank bio-science down my list, but only slightly. Our bio and chemistry knowledge has been accumulated from trial and error performed over the past 1000+ years and some of that trial and error could be quite gruesome. Today it is the study of DNA and genetic manipulation that holds the greatest promise for the advancement of medical science and bio-energy applications.
• I place the physicists at the top of this list because both the computer science and bio advancements rely on our understanding of the underlying physics. Without that basic understanding we could not have progressed as far as we have in any field.

 I think in the end it will be up to the Physicists and Bio-engineers to combine their knowledge and develop new energy generation technologies. Technologies such as solar, nuclear fusion, bio-mass derived fuels, wind farms, extended life battery technologies, and new energy delivery systems. We do have some alternatives today but they are not very economical due to the lack of a distribution infrastructure that can replace gas stations with re-charging stations for electric based automobiles.  It seems like we are betting the future of our planet and civilization on coming up with alternative energy sources in the near future that will lessen our dependence on oil and other natural resources such as coal and also create cleaner energy sources to save and repair our global environment.

  
It's this relatively small group of people who have had an enormous impact on our civilization. Were talking about .0001 percent of the world population capable of providing this know-how for everyone else's benefit. I find that amazing and comforting that these people exist. If we do not continue to press the limits of the unknown it would be a true crime against humanity. So when I hear of government and private monetary contributions being made to fund scientific research it makes me feel a little better. It doesn't matter if the government is looking for better weapons tech or the corporations are just looking for bigger profit margins. Just the fact that this support is being provided gives me hope.