Thursday, September 12, 2019

“In order for the United States to do the right things for the long term, it appears to be helpful for us to have the prospect of humiliation. Sputnik helped us fund good science – really good science: the semiconductor came out of it.”
– Bill Gates –

A “Sputnik moment” is one where the deployment of a previously unseen technology upends our equilibrium and understanding of the world. And, just as the original Sputnik launch rocked America, today’s rapidly developing technologies have the potential to do the same. This is the idea behind a recent military thoughtpiece positing that hypersonic missiles have the potential to create a “Sputnik moment.”

Click here for the article Hypersonics: The New ‘Sputnik’ Moment? and then ask yourself what near-future technologies might disrupt your industry. (And keep in mind that guessing correctly matters much less than considering the question in the first place).