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Comment by p333347 | Hacker News Reader

Techies can only assist the scientists in bringing their successful lab experiments into the real world. I expect scientists to solve problems in two fields - agriculture and water resources (especially drinking water) - before tackling fancier things like interplanetary exploration, brain computer interfaces etc. I understand not all scientists (or their domains) are equal but I expect science to solve basic problems first. Science created the problem by making people live longer, so science must solve the problem as well (half kidding). Once a solution is in beta mode, the techies can go crazy building software and gadgets for it, which is what they do well.

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Yes, excellent points to observe that there's no substitute for domain expertise, and I agree with you on good and water being important. I guess our sf has made space travel more exciting than any water or food related themes, which are aren't exciting as trips to Mars or traveling the galaxy meeting interesting beings.

I guess there are some good dystopias out there, and some royal political fuck-ups that make you start thinking there really is "evil" if you didn't before: Flint, Michigan.

I personally like deep ocean exploration much more than space exploration as it is extremely relevant to us as living beings on Earth. I hope some like minded sf writers popularize this genre in near future (I don't read sf but a cursory look at it seems space exploration is favored a lot, probably next only to (and intertwined with) time travel).

Yes, and it didn't even occur to me until you mentioned it. The return in terms of knowledge and perspective would be realized quicker and at less cost. The discoveries likely just as alien but perhaps more useful to our plight.

This is an underrated point. I believe that as an average techie, your highest social impact is in building the tools required to solve these problems. We don't need better phones and advertisements, we need better tools for out scientists and doctors. I currently build research devices for applications in marine science and water quality research. Though my day to day is a bit removed from the social benefit, it is uplifting to hear about the companies and universities that but these products to good use.

Yes, agreed, strangly underrated, as perhaps most people have their awareness of tools running in the background. We already see the importance of tools so it's not a hard leap to understand EVERY domain needs better tools to be more effective.

Your day is close enough to the action. My dad, a mechanical engineer, worked on part of the breathing apparatus used in the Apollo program. That's a part of that problem, small and perhaps not glamorous but close enough. I'd say you're damn close. Closer than I've ever been to anything real unless you count buying a programmable robot vacuum cleaner kit instead of the normal one so I could in theory program my vacuum cleaner to do cool stuff, not to mention at modules!

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