There are more and more examples of these moonshot programs around the world and that is a very encouraging trend as it encourages creative thinking and many different groups of people to work together that normally would not do so. Whether it is dependency on limited government funds or the pressure of corporate funding to invest in projects with strong return potential, it can be hard to organize these projects otherwise.
This is a great example of the ecosystem-based design problem solving we have discussed so many times before. It is also noteworthy the comments in this article that the brain mapping from this program is relying on scientific and technical tools that have only been around for a decade or so. There is a rush for everything “artificial intelligence” with many billions of dollars in funding chasing this trend in a wide variety of settings. It is normal in the early stages of new industry trends to see some failures and growing pains. However, today so much money is flowing so quickly and early that there could be some unintended consequences to local and global economies with high profile failures. It is good to see programs like these are moving more methodically and more patiently.
Today the biggest breakthroughs are coming through this trend of convergence and the networking effects of interdisciplinary teams tinkering with new scientific and technical tools. You find it everywhere you look. You find it in nanotechnology. You find it in materials science. You find it with systems biology and genetic engineering. You find it with blockchain and virtual reality. This is a very interesting example of looking to nature for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. Again, the information technology and new scientific tools are enabling this work to take place.
Here is a link to the article: