the next X-Prize
A strange thing happened on today's Daily Show.
Jon Stewart was interviewing Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Records, about his new show when Jon suggested that Richard sponsor a X-Prize type contest. The goal: Develop a replacement for the internal combustion engine.
Branson obviously agreed to nothing, but it was a brilliant idea. Of course, there are alternatives already out there. One is run on compressed air. I don't know how viable that is. But an X-Prize is the type of contest that would give many innovators incentive to pursue this goal.
Although, if some obscure engineering firm comes up with a solution, you have to wonder, where the hell were the automotive industry on this one?
I also realize that this design competition is different from the X-Prize in that the race to space is a oligopoly of state run agencies (NASA, ESA), so there was no incentive to push for the commercialization of space (I question the safety of it too, but that's another story). Whereas, everyone knows how to build an internal combustion engine and it's easy to reproduce, so there's no incentive to innovate radically (which I guess also explains the auto industry). So maybe a couple million isn't enough of an incentive
Anyways, I hope some billionaire does do it. Soros, Branson, Gates, Buffett. I'm looking at you.
2 comments:
That would be an incredible contest! There's so much money in the combustion engine right now that there's not much incentive to be the person who opens up another market for an alternative engine. So why not fabricate an incentive?
In a link-up back to a post from a few weeks ago, I think this is the kind of thing that could make reality tv good.
Cam, your comment about combining the "Next X-Prize" with a reality TV show sends shivers down my spine. The possibility of a reality TV show that may produce something useful to society may just cause the universe to invert upon itself.
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