Open Letter to the President of the United States

This letter was sent to the President by email and snail mail on 2/12/07. The same letter will be sent to every member of congress and the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). Below, some of the sensitive content has been replaced by a number of Xs.

Feel free to copy the letter and re-send it to the President and members of congress as a vote of your support in the hopes of creating a better world.

President@whitehouse.gov

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Open letter to the President of the United States

Dear Mr. President

I’m writing to you to bring your attention to enormous events and technologies that will shape the future of not only this country but our world as a whole.

Simply put we have developed the biggest breakthrough in computer science to this point in time. That’s just the way our colleagues at the National Science Foundation phrase it. We think it’s much more than that. We think it is the most important technology on the planet and of all time.1 Computer Science is ready to take a Quantum leap forward.

Something very special and eventful happened between 1994 and 2000. For the first time we got a glimpse of the awesome power of connecting the human race.

The internet assisted by the World Wide Web has created a fantastic shift in the way commerce and industry can affect change. Unfortunately we have not been successful in sustaining the economic growth due to deficiencies in Web technology. I submit to you now, that fixing this problem is the single most important thing we can do on this planet. It is the single most important thing we can do to move this country further and faster than ever before. Recent developments will now allow us to go far beyond just fixing this problem.

In order to tap the net for its treasures we will have to build something much more substantial online than websites. Building websites, web pages and gimmicky ventures of that sort will not move us forward. In the past we have used the net more as a play ground and a toy for amusement. If we start building real structures everything changes. The internet will no longer be just for fun and games and get rich websites. It will become the foundation of human life on this planet. It may sound like a lot of hyperbole and just too fantastic, but anything that has the ability to fix our upside down world has to be fantastic. We are not the only scientist that believes in the impact that such a solution could bring. Here are a couple of quotes by Guru Parulkar from the National Science Foundation (a government think tank), “If we succeed in what we are trying to do, this is bigger than anything we, as a research community, have done in computer science so far." “It is a very big deal.” “It has the potential to change the game.” ²

We are a lot more enthusiastic and euphoric than our colleges at the National Science Foundation. Let me share the reasons why. Earlier I spoke of having to build something much more substantial online. That something is called The Digital Industrial Complex. It is by far the most important thing that this country can set out to build. In short, D.I.C. (pronounced dice) is a virtual extension of our real world in Cyber Space. It is like throwing a net over the internet so that we can harvest its awesome power. No other country in the world is ready to make the jump to a true information society. In many ways we don’t have a choice.

Readiness
The United States is in the best position to take advantage of the internet but that doesn’t mean we are fully prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.

may

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Our real challenge is to motivate, educate and to take decisive leadership.

Economics –

Our nation is facing some pretty rocky challenges with no remedies in sight.

The only thing that has come even close to generating the kind of economic growth and activity that we will need to address these challenges was the tech boom of the 90s. It is the best model we have for producing economic growth and innovation on a scale that will be needed to move our country forward. The only problem is that this model was dependant on web technology that was not sufficient to sustain innovation and therefore the economic growth collapsed. D.I.C. will allow us to sustain innovation and economic growth? D.I.C. is the only solution forthcoming.

New World of Unlimited Possibilities –

What does harnessing the most powerful medium of all time really mean? What does it mean for the human race? The human race is fragmented into billions of little pieces. The internet coupled with a foundation will allow us to efficiently connect these peaces so that they become one. If we had the ability to work together, then anything is possible. If we had the technology to work together do you think we could eradicate hunger, homelessness, human suffering and despair? xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx