ped nations could effortlessly go from 3% of GDP to 10% and even middle income countries could deploy a similar share of their economy for that purpose.

Such allocation would immediately translate into an exponential acceleration in the rate of discoveries. If most of that money would go into medical R&D, we could very soon reach a state where people would no longer be afraid of diseases. Diseases would vanish from the face of the planet because there would be a vaccine or a cure for everything. We would live in a world without the fear of illness.

The only thing that is hindering us from reaching that state of nirvana is ignorance and a lack of vision.

That however is unavoidable considering the people who are in governme

Over the past five centuries, there has been a constant acceleration of the rate by which discoveries are made. It has gone so fast, in particular during the twentieth century that in just that one hundred-year period, there were more inventions than in all of the preceding history of humanity.

However, a period of time such as a century is too long for any individual. For most people and in particular for those who are ill with an incurable disease, science and more particular medical science, does not advance fast enough.

When people are ill, they want an immediate solution and that rarely happens because science tends to operate at a much slower pace than a fast food restaurant. From 1970 to the present for example, medical science has made many progresses in the fight against cancer but in spite of that, the life expectancy of cancer patients has increased by only four years. That is obviously not good enough.

However, there is a mechanism that would allow for a much faster rate of discoveries than the present one and history tells us which one it is.

During the Middle Ages, Europe went through a thousand years in which it wasted all of its resources on religion. However, in the sixteenth century policies changed. It was not a radical change, but governments nonetheless exponentially increased the money allocated to technology. That immediately produced positive results as inventions multiplied.

It must be said that practically all of the funds were used for applied research because governments were only driven by the desire to create particular goods, of which many were weapons. Pure science and theoretical analyses were not funded.

In the following century, the share of the total economy that was allocated to technological matters went up anew, and the pace of invention again accelerated. In the three centuries that came after that one, there was an ever growing slice from the total economy of not just Europe but also of the whole world, which was deployed for applied research. That was accompanied by an ever faster speed of patent registrations.

Over the long term, the differences became huge and the results were also huge. While in the sixteenth century only about 0.01% of the world economy was utilized for the promotion of technology, by the twentieth century the figure was of about 0.7%. While in the first period progress was slow, in the second it was galloping. The correlation is very straightforward.

There is not the slightest doubt that government policy is decisive in determining the pace of technological development. Governments not only decide how much from the budget gets used for research and development (R&D), but they can also increase the size of the budget. They can as well enact legislation that will induce the private sector to invest more in R&D.

At present, policy makers could very easily increase by a large margin the share of the economy that is used for R&D. Developed nations could effortlessly go from 3% of GDP to 10% and even middle income countries could deploy a similar share of their economy for that purpose.

Such allocation would immediately translate into an exponential acceleration in the rate of discoveries. If most of that money would go into medical R&D, we could very soon reach a state where people would no longer be afraid of diseases. Diseases would vanish from the face of the planet because there would be a vaccine or a cure for everything. We would live in a world without the fear of illness.

The only thing that is hindering us from reaching that state of nirvana is ignorance and a lack of vision.

That however is unavoidable considering the people who are in governmen

cience has made many progresses in the fight against cancer but in spite of that, the life expectancy of cancer patients has increased by only four years. That is obviously not good enough.

However, there is a mechanism that would allow for a much faster rate of discoveries than the present one and history tells us which one it is.

During the Middle Ages, Europe went through a thousand years in which it wasted all of its resources on religion. However, in the sixteenth century policies changed. It was not a radical change, but governments nonetheless exponentially increased the money allocated to technology. That immediately produced positive results as inventions multiplied.

It must be said that practically all of the funds were used for applied research because governments were only driven by the desire to create particular goods, of which many were weapons. Pure science and theoretical analyses were not funded.

In the following century, the share of the total economy that was allocated to technological matters went up anew, and the pace of invention again accelerated. In the three centuries that came after that one, there was an ever growing slice from the total economy of not just Europe but also of the whole world, which was deployed for applied research. That was accompanied by an ever faster speed of patent registrations.

Over the long term, the differences became huge and the results were also huge. While in the sixteenth century only about 0.01% of the world economy was utilized for the promotion of technology, by the twentieth century the figure was of about 0.7%. While in the first period progress was slow, in the second it was galloping. The correlation is very straightforward.

There is not the slightest doubt that government policy is decisive in determining the pace of technological development. Governments not only decide how much from the budget gets used for research and development (R&D), but they can also increase the size of the budget. They can as well enact legislation that will induce the private sector to invest more in R&D.

At present, policy makers could very easily increase by a large margin the share of the economy that is used for R&D. Developed nations could effortlessly go from 3% of GDP to 10% and even middle income countries could deploy a similar share of their economy for that purpose.

Such allocation would immediately translate into an exponential acceleration in the rate of discoveries. If most of that money would go into medical R&D, we could very soon reach a state where people would no longer be afraid of diseases. Diseases would vanish from the face of the planet because there would be a vaccine or a cure for everything. We would live in a world without the fear of illness.

The only thing that is hindering us from reaching that state of nirvana is ignorance and a lack of vision.

That however is unavoidable considering the people who are in governme

ds were used for applied research because governments were only driven by the desire to create particular goods, of which many were weapons. Pure science and theoretical analyses were not funded.

In the following century, the share of the total economy that was allocated to technological matters went up anew, and the pace of invention again accelerated. In the three centuries that came after that one, there was an ever growing slice from the total economy of not just Europe but also of the whole world, which was deployed for applied research. That was accompanied by an ever faster speed of patent registrations.

Over the long term, the differences became huge and the results were also huge. While in the sixteenth century only about 0.01% of the world economy was utilized for the promotion of technology, by the twentieth century the figure was of about 0.7%. While in the first period progress was slow, in the second it was galloping. The correlation is very straightforward.

There is not the slightest doubt that government policy is decisive in determining the pace of technological development. Governments not only decide how much from the budget gets used for research and development (R&D), but they can also increase the size of the budget. They can as well enact legislation that will induce the private sector to invest more in R&D.

At present, policy makers could very easily increase by a large margin the share of the economy that is used for R&D. Developed nations could effortlessly go from 3% of GDP to 10% and even middle income countries could deploy a similar share of their economy for that purpose.

Such allocation would immediately translate into an exponential acceleration in the rate of discoveries. If most of that money would go into medical R&D, we could very soon reach a state where people would no longer be afraid of diseases. Diseases would vanish from the face of the planet because there would be a vaccine or a cure for everything. We would live in a world without the fear of illness.

The only thing that is hindering us from reaching that state of nirvana is ignorance and a lack of vision.

That however is unavoidable considering the people who are in governme

t 0.01% of the world economy was utilized for the promotion of technology, by the twentieth century the figure was of about 0.7%. While in the first period progress was slow, in the second it was galloping. The correlation is very straightforward.

There is not the slightest doubt that government policy is decisive in determining the pace of technological development. Governments not only decide how much from the budget gets used for research and development (R&D), but they can also increase the size of the budget. They can as well enact legislation that will induce the private sector to invest more in R&D.

At present, policy makers could very easily increase by a large margin the share of the economy that is used for R&D. Developed nations could effortlessly go from 3% of GDP to 10% and even middle income countries could deploy a similar share of their economy for that purpose.

Such allocation would immediately translate into an exponential acceleration in the rate of discoveries. If most of that money would go into medical R&D, we could very soon reach a state where people would no longer be afraid of diseases. Diseases would vanish from the face of the planet because there would be a vaccine or a cure for everything. We would live in a world without the fear of illness.

The only thing that is hindering us from reaching that state of nirvana is ignorance and a lack of vision.

That however is unavoidable considering the people who are in governme

ped nations could effortlessly go from 3% of GDP to 10% and even middle income countries could deploy a similar share of their economy for that purpose.

Such allocation would immediately translate into an exponential acceleration in the rate of discoveries. If most of that money would go into medical R&D, we could very soon reach a state where people would no longer be afraid of diseases. Diseases would vanish from the face of the planet because there would be a vaccine or a cure for everything. We would live in a world without the fear of illness.

The only thing that is hindering us from reaching that state of nirvana is ignorance and a lack of vision.

That however is unavoidable considering the people who are in government. The governments of the world are lead by men with mediocre brains whose only goal is to hold on to power. It is a sad truth, but opportunism is what prevails in the capitals of this planet.

We need men and women with potent and highly developed brains. Policy making should be in the hands of the brightest. We need scientists at the very top and not lawyers, businessmen or actors.