The Big Think

YES! I’ve been saying for years that X-prize style rewards for innovation are the key to solving some of the most intractable problems we face. A monetary prize is what got Lindbergh over the Atlantic, SpaceShipOne over the 100 kilometer hump, and may soon be responsible for human life spans in excess of 120 years.

But they don’t go far enough. I believe that if the government, or some large corporation would be willing to drop the Big 10 Digits (a billion dollars) in the prize buckets, no power in the ‘verse could stop crazy entrepreneurs from solving just about any previously “unsolvable” problem. A BILLION DOLLARS (cue Dr. Evil) is a whole lot of motivation, certainly in light of the fact that previous prizes (25K for Lucky Lindy and 10 million for Rutan) didn’t even cover development costs. They were more along the lines of prestige prizes and not actual financial incentives (Paul Allen dropped 20 million in the pursuit of the 10 million dollar Xprize).

To that end, the Dewey Foundation has set up the Victory Project. Here’s what they say on their home page:

We will pay:

To the first person(s) that solves any of these Problems:

1. Develop a cure for breast cancer.
2. Develop a cure for diabetes.
3. Reduce greenhouse emissions from petroleum powered automobiles by 95% without increasing the cost of a normal car more than 5%.
4. Achieve 150 miles per gallon of gasoline in a 3,000 lb. car, using EPA standards; without increasing the cost of a normal car more than 10%.

Onward to Victory!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.