I have given this topic a lot of thought and I sincerely believe that we get what we do in the marketplace because that is where investment has gone and because that is what consumers have responded to. There is no shortage of ambitious startups trying to do hard things. The problem is, the consumer marketplace isn't there for it and investors, broadly speaking, aren't willing to put the money into ventures which have 5-10 year tails. VC's all want 3 year exits. You can't do basic science in that time, and real research takes much longer than that.

With a few notable exceptions these big investments don't exist for "startups" and really never have, they have largely relied on government funding in some form or fashion for the big breakthroughs - PARC and the beginnings of SV all come immediately to mind.

Unless investors start looking long term as the standard, rather than the exception, this isn't going to change. That or government needs to get back into the game, but that seems like it's gone as a viable option.