Entertainment Over Advancement

So I started my first day back from vacation by checking my university’s website, and I noticed an article from the New York Times which talked about a growing trend developing in the hiring policies of many silicon valley companies. This article highlighted the fact that a fairly large portion of graduates in the fields of computer science and engineering are being picked up by large companies such as Facebook, Google, and the like. While I will fully agree that improvements in the efficiency and operation of these companies have improved the user experience and entertainment value of many of their products and services, I couldn’t help but wonder how the distribution of technical talent may be affecting the course of society.

There was a time when the majority of technological advances came as a result of government funding. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA, has been responsible for advances in our space program, the early stages of what is now known to be the internet, and even stealth technology. All these advances came as the result of generous funding and a dedicated effort on the part of some of the most intelligent people our educational system had to offer. In addition, the general public benefitted from many of these advancements whether directly or indirectly. This is not to say that governmental entities always have the most noble intentions, but the general public can at least benefit from intellectual property created by individuals in government employ. In this day and age, however, many of the most intelligent and talented technical students and experts are being employed by large corporations with an extremely narrow focus and a vested interest in controlling the use of the advances created by their employees. These efforts are usually only dedicated to the greater entertainment or enjoyment value of the customers, and by extension, profitability of the company.

So what does this mean for our advancement going forward? Will we in ten years be a society with cutting edge social networking and entertainment media, but still be light-years away from solving the issues of pollution, political unrest, and world hunger? I am by no means downplaying the importance of creativity (see my last post: Is Entertainment Good For Society), but I do believe that there needs to be a balance. I’ve always been of the mindset that one should take care of business first. In a world where we can turn salt water into fresh water through reverse osmosis, farmers are capable of producing more crops than needed, and even the most repressed regions of the world are rallying for freedom, it seems logical that we would be wise to invest a bit more resources into figuring out how to practically apply recent discoveries to problems such as water shortages, world hunger, and global pollution. That’s just my $.02 though. I’m not really an expert on global economics, I just live here.