The article says basic research is good. NASA is a outfit that does that. They do basic research that industry can exploit, to improve our lives. It seems they should use that model more often for something useful, like medicine or energy. Nanotechnology is the next big thing, they should be building microscopes to help that along instead of telescopes to see if there is a bigger moon around Uranus.
Daal - I disagree with your views. You say that increased productivity in this "utopia" of robotics would benefit everyone - but that's only if the government/economy in question was a communist one. After all, if property rights are in private hands, then only so many people would own the means of production - the robots and land. What happens to the others that own nothing? The "useless eaters?" What do they do to earn their meals? Nitro - Jeremy Rifkin addresses these concerns in his book "The End of Work."
That is a possibility. If the bots are so advanced and efficient to the point they unemployed most of the population(and apparently cheap because they are being so widely used) , the government(who will be taxing all the bot industry, maybe even with windfall profit taxes) can give loans to every citizen so THEY can buy their personal farmer bot, doctor, cleaner, etc. People wouldn't have to work anymore. Heck Buffett and Gates could give free bots to people. Standards of living would reach levels unimaginable, no starvation, no famine, etc. Of course we will still have to figure out how to stop them from nuking the White House or something
In a world where robots can produce everything so easly and effectively you earn your meal by buying your own bot, who them will make it for you. The government, charity and your savings can help you purchase it. Futhermore the people selling bots still need to, watch baseball, hookers, soap operas, psychological advice, learn to sing, whatever
Which is whoever holds the patent, copyright or trademark that they earned through the labor of their innovation. All others get busted for piracy, which isn't cheap (or shouldn't be).
according to the unamerican retard right, funding NASA is "Socialism". It will take a decade to right the ship because for the better part of the past decade we made the mistake of allowing the unamerican retards on the right dictate how the govt. operates Kind of serves us right to be in the predicament we are in. The punishment for abdicating responsible govt. to the dumbest of the dumb is we ended up with a functionally retarded president who spoke with God on matters of state. Turns out it was Satan he was speaking to.
In my own view the best thing to open the innovation gates is to open the space to private investor by removing nasa !