How can scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?

Question

How can scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?

Answer 1

More cancer research.  I know a lot of people who have died from this awful disease.  All kinds of cancer.   Of all the people I've known who have died from it, only one smoked.  More people dying, less people smoking?  I do believe that the powers that be do not want to find a cure as that would not be financially beneficial to doctors and pharmaceutical companies.  I believe once a cure for cancer is found then, that technology can be used for other awful diseases such as HIV.

Answer 2

Do we want them accelerated?  Personally I would rather every break through goes under a stringent set of tests over a number of years before it is put into wider use.

It seems all too often that we hear another story of something that used to be good for you, now having a negative impact after further research.

Also, we would have to ensure we are not creating greater harm than good.  If what is published has some element of truth, then the usual dose of anti-biotics is not going to be of much use in the future as the diseases we treat with it become immune.

If we are to find a cure for things such as cancer, I'm sure everyone would agree that it would rather be a permenant cure than a temporary fight, for it only to evolve into something stronger, forcing us to begin the whole process again.

We have to concentrate on the prevention, rather than cure, as this has been the only truly successful treatment in medical history - vaccination e.t.c.

Answer 3

Remove evil from the human heart.  Then we wouldn't need to spend so much of our time, resources, and lives on defense, police, regulation, government, audits, and so on.

Remove the influence of government and unions from public schools.  Allow parents to choose schools.  Schools will then begin to teach the skills needed for people to effectively contribute to society, equipping and freeing more to pursue science and technology.

Get serious about eliminating 'recreational' drugs from society.  That alone would make a huge difference in the amount of resource available to improve the human condition in many ways.