The Y, Z, and “We’ll Have to Start the Alphabet Over” Prizes

By | October 13, 2004
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This
is huge:

The X Prize Foundation and the World Technology Network announced today
the formation of a joint venture to launch a series of technology incentive
prizes to help spur innovation and breakthroughs in a range of scientific
arenas.

The creation of new X Prize awards follows the success of the twin
SpaceShipOne flights that snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse.
However, these are focused on other arenas, such as medicine, environment,
energy, nanotechnology, and informatics.

FuturePundit has more
details, including a handy breakdown of some of the proposed prizes:

1. Transportation: Demonstration of a 4-seat vehicle able to achieve 200
miles per gallon in a cross country race

2. Nanotechnology: Construction of a pre-determined molecule by an assembler

3. Aging deceleration: Extension of mammal life, or demonstrated evidence
of aging reversal

4. Education: Demonstration of a self-sufficient education facility able
to operate independently and educate villagers anywhere on the planet

Randall Parker comments:

The X Prize success demonstrates that prize
money can be a very effective tool for accelerating the advance of science
and technology. I favor aging research prizes aimed at the development
of effective rejuvenation treatments most of all. But another class of prizes
that deserves support are prizes
for achievements in developing new energy technologies. What would be
useful milestones in the development of better energy technologies? Keep in
mind that ideal milestones should be achievable by fairly small teams of engineers
and scientists.

Of course, there have always been rich financial rewards associated with helping
to bring about the next stage of technological development. But there does seem
to be something especially effective about putting a prize in place and encouraging
teams to try to be the first to achieve some milestone. As we saw in the example
set by the X Prize, there are no losers. Even the teams who don’t
win the prize stand to reap substantial rewards.

Randall is taking suggestions for additional competitions. I have a few thoughts:

  1. A prize for the first team to create a computer that passes the Turing Test.
  2. Related to one of Randall’s ideas, a prize for demonstrating a practical
    means of extracting hydrogen from the atmosphere and/or the development of
    a hydrogen fuel cell.
  3. A prize for achieving some specific accomplishment in robotics. Say, building
    a robot that can iron a shirt.
  4. Related to an item reported
    earlier this week    , a prize for demonstrating a low-cost automated means
    of scanning millions of books.

What else?