The implications of this effort are rather profound when you think of what this means from a private citizen-enthusiast level. It’s sad to see how much Google is doing to empower the user compared to what our government should be doing. One thing our government in this country has failed to do is to engage its citizenry in becoming part of the forward scientific progression of our species.

Do you know how much red tape there lies between an avid ambitious unaccredited intelligence and that intelligence’s ability to access the knowledge and instruction so vital to it being able to shepherd an idea through the various stages of realization? Instead we are relegated to gigantic agency-level institutions and entities who display the agility of concrete in the invention and application of new technology — but perhaps this is just a convenient myth.

The truth of the matter is that innovation IS alive, everywhere and in many places.

Every person has a piece of the jigsaw. All of the skills, technologies; all of the elements we require to optimize life on Earth exist now. Perhaps this case could be made … that now it’s simply a matter of connecting the dots.

Is the system self-organizing? If it is, is there still nothing we can do to accelerate the process of organization?

Onward to the moon and beyond …

Welcome to a new kind of space race, where the earthly guest will be a machine and the goal is as much exploration as seeking out new business ventures.

The quest is part of the Google Lunar X Prize, which will put $20 million into the hands of the first privately funded team that can land a rover on the moon, have it travel on the surface for 500 meters or more, send back data, photos and video, and do it all by December 31, 2012.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/06/20/google.lunar.xprize/index.html