Hello 2017, the best way to predict the future is to invent it!

I do not believe in New Year's resolution. If something is important enough, why wait till the New Year? Every day is a new day when we can make the most courageous and determined effort in achieving our goals:

Philanthropy

Google.org, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Ford Foundation are some of the largest and most well-known philanthropic organizations in the world. In December 2015, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would donate 99% of his Facebook shares worth $45 billion to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC for charitable projects. In fact, there are more than 1.5 million charitable organizations in the United States spending over $1.57 trillion in cash and 7.9 billion hours of service to "do the right thing" by lending a helping hand.

Back in 1949, the Ford Foundation thoroughly reviewed the ideas and goals of philanthropy, and came to the following conclusions on why and how to spend half a billion dollars a year for charity:

"At one time the gifts of individuals and benevolent organizations were intended largely to relieve the suffering of 'the weak, the poor and the unfortunate.' With the establishment of the modern foundation a much greater concept came into being. The aim is no longer merely to treat symptoms ... but rather to eradicate the causes of suffering. Nor is the modern foundation content to concern itself only with man's obvious physical needs; it seeks rather to help man achieve his entire well-being-to satisfy his mental, emotional, and spiritual needs as well. ... what he needs and wants, what incentives are necessary to his productive and socially useful life, what factors influence his development and behavior, how he learns and communicates with other persons, and, finally, what prevents him from living at peace with himself and his fellow men."

"The aim is no longer merely to treat symptoms ... but rather to eradicate the causes of suffering." - The Ford Foundation

Moon Landing

The Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969 was made possible because of the unprecedented national focus, collaborative spirit, and financial support for one tremendously difficult challenge. Imagine what $1.57 trillion in cash and 7.9 billion hours of service could have done to solve some of the most pressing issues today. We may not achieve an immediate unalloyed success without a few bumps along the way, but the successful Moon landing was preceded by many failures.

President John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University on September 12, 1962: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade ... not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."

America at the time intended to win the Space Race against Russia who launched the first satellite (Sputnik) in October 1957 and sent the first astronaut (Yuri Gagarin) to outer space in April 1961.

Moon landing was a huge challenge that was solved by human perseverance and ingenuity, in spite of the mere 50% chance of success according to American astronaut Neil Armstrong. Imagine what else we can accomplish if America and the whole world are determined to eradicate wars, diseases, pollution, global warming, poverty, homelessness, world hunger, and other human sufferings.

Imagine what else we can accomplish if America and the whole world are determined to eradicate wars, diseases, pollution, global warming, poverty, homelessness, world hunger, and other human sufferings.

With a Little Help from My Friends

Scientists and engineers need unfaltering support akin to what NASA received in the 60's from the U.S. government and the American public. An older generation may feel nostalgic about the 1967 Beatles song With a Little Help from My Friends or the Joe Cocker's version that he performed with Jimmy Page and others at Woodstock in 1969. The Beatles song was played as the wake-up music on Space Shuttle Mission STS-61 on December 5, 1993.

A little help from federal funding can go a long way. DARPA initiated and funded the research and development of Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) that went online in 1969. The success of ARPANET gave rise to the global commercial Internet in the mid-1990s and the new generation of Fortune 500 companies today including Amazon.com, Google, eBay, and Facebook. Another good example is the talking, question-answering Siri application on Apple's iPhone. Siri originated from a DARPA-funded project known as PAL (Personalized Assistant that Learns) - an adaptive artificial intelligence program for data retrieval and synthesis.

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it!" said Alan Kay and Steve Jobs.

Excerpts

The above is an excerpt from Chapter 1 in Google It: Total Information Awareness available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Springer Science+Business Media, and more than 200 libraries worldwide.

See also:

• Google vs. Death: Fountain of Youth and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• King Solomon outwits DNA test. Artificial intelligence vs. the trolley problem.
• The Transhumanist Platform from "Google It"
• Google It (Soundtrack): To Peace, Love, and Freedom