Friday, October 24, 2014

Personal Notes [Unofficial Post]



"Manhattan Scale" project on BioSciences, Translational Medicine and BioEngineering
I'll start a Manhattan Scale project on BioSciences, Translational Medicine and BioEngineering - that will define the frontiers of Healthcare and related fields - like Environment, Energy (Fuel; Photosynthesis inspired Solar Cells?) & Sustainability, Agriculture.

  • Cancer, Ebola, Perkinson's, AIDS, Alzheimer's,
  • Disabilities and losses (Eyesight loss; Limb Amputee, etc. <- Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine. We can replace with Mechanical / Physical parts as long as we our Stem Cell / Regenerative Medicine Tech is not advanced enough - but remember - Biology - is the ultimate technology.
My Guiding Principle would be - Restore the Normal (as opposed to the artificial - Mechanical devices or Pills or Drugs) - possibly through
  • Stem Cell / Regenerative Medicine or
  • Gene Therapy.
As long as we can't make headway in Stem Cell / Gene Therapy - we can do away with Drugs and Devices - but the ultimate future is Biology.
My Plan is to build
  • Medical / Scientific / Engineering Equipments (that would be required in my own research) and
  • Sell and use the profit to fund my research / further work.
So only limited funding would be required in the first phase - and from that point on self - funding / reinvesting.
Equipments would require continuous innovations and improvements. For example,
  • Gene Sequencers (Bringing down the cost of Gene sequencing of a single Genome to several hundred dollars or maybe $100.)
  • Robots that automate much of Experimental work. [Consider: Combinatorial Chemistry - parallel reactions]
Another line of products (lots of innovations)
  • Medical / Surgical Equipments (from smaller Ultra-Sounds to "Da Vinci"-like Surgical Robots)
  • Healthcare IT Infrastructure and Services (to Hospitals, Clinics) - [Examples:
  • Sensors that measure Body parameters and store data in Database / Cloud <- Big Data 2.0 on Data;
  • Watson-like AI on Medical Literature (e.g., Pubmed) to augment Medical Researchers and Physicians]

Hiring
 
A few BioEngineering / BioMedical Engineering / Molecular Biology / Cell Biology / BioChemistry / BioPhysics / BioInformatics / Computational Biology PhDs - each concentrating on a particular part - under my supervision. For example:
  • One researcher concentrating on Transport system of Cells - 2013 Nobel Physiology or Medicine Prize Work (Collaborating with other researchers focused on other Cellular organelles or Extra-cellular Matrix)
  • Another researcher concentrating on Spatial Representations and Motor Planning in the Brain - 2014 Nobel Physiology or Medicine Prize Work
  • Couple working on how to repair / replace Damaged Organs with Tissue / Organs grown from Stem Cells - carrying on the 2012 Nobel Physiology or Medicine Prize Work.

Another Plan:
I will review and modernize the FDA (Drug, Medical Device) appoval process.
Going through a process that takes 10 years and costs Billion Dollars - after inventing a drug [and device] - to bring it to market - kills off many promising drugs.
Other "Manhattan Scale" Projects / Innovations:
Education Platform

Artificial Intelligence Platform
  • Watson-like Natural Language Understanding + A Lot More 
  • Less computational resource requirement; Highly developed Knowledge Processing / Reasoning 
  • Apps and Services on Top of the Platform
Cloud Manufacturing Platform + Physical Digital Computing Division
  • This is where the Medical / Surgical / Scientific Equipments would be manufactured. 
  • + Manufacturing Equipments and Services for Companies 
  • Materials / Nano / Applied Physics / Engineering Research
Knowlwdge Based Robotics
  • Imagine: Robot Engineers repairing your Car.
  • Robots in Industry. Home. Healthcare. Service Robots.
Computer Architecture; Processor; Hardware; Novel Material

Other Revolutionary Products / Set of Products:
  • E-Book 2.0 / E-Magazine 2.0 / E-Newspaper 2.0 & Digital Publishing


The Greatest Mind


Notes On Karl Marx
Let us look at Karl Marx from a historical perspective putting him in the time during which he lived and see how the world has changed since his time and whether his ideas still hold in our changed world.
Karl Marx lived at a time (1818 - 1883) when knowledge based Economy wasn't established.
In pre-knowledge based economy - it was the physical labor - that produced good.
But in Knowledge Based Economy - Intellectual Capital and Management (in Economic terms it is referred to as Technology) dominate.
Management as a branch didn't get started during Marx's lifetime.
Marx felt that "all the work" was done by labor and the profit was taken by Capitalists.
But in Knowledge Based Economies, management plays a critical role.
And not all the work is done labors.

Marx saw - capitalists getting the profits as injustice.
So Marx called for revolution of labors.
But now we know that, the labors alone can't produce the Industrial goods without Management supervision and Capital.
  1. Capital (Man-made Industrial equipments),
  2. Land (Natural Resources that an Industry use)
  3. Technology (the art of bringing Labor, Capital and Land together to produce goods; Management)
are important besides labor.
And labor alone can't produce all the products (which was somewhat true during Marx's lifetime - in a pre-knowledge based economy).
During Marx's lifetime Technology wasn't developed. Assembly line productions (Ford and Toyota are crowning examples) and hence the requirement of "Management" of process and people started in the 20th Century.
A revolution by labors is still possible - but are those labors capable of producing the goods in a Modern Technologically sophisticated and Management enriched Industry?


Notes On Gates Foundation
The idea for Gates Foundation came while Bill Gates was visiting South Africa and he found out that there wasn't adequate "electricity" supply in South Africa to run the Windows programs that Microsoft built.
So the Information Technology innovations that Microsoft developed couldn't solve a lot of common problems that people face.
There had to be a way.
Thus came "Gates Foundation".

As is consistent with Bill Gates' background, when it got started Gates Foundation was about finding Scientific / Technological solutions to problems.
But Gates has always been fascinated about Economics. If I am not mistaken - at some point in his life Gates wished he could do research on Economics consecutively for 10 years.
[His other dreams included:
  • becoming a Chess GrandMaster;
  • doing research in BioChemistry - if Microsoft never happened (a huge fan of Richard Dawkins and his Selfish Genes! Maybe Gates wished he could find a few of the Selfless Genes he inherited in his DNA or in others' DNA!);
  • make IBM and Microsoft work together]
Creative Capitalism born out of that interest in Economics.

But Government (& Policy) and Social Change are completely new - or should I only mention Government.
Melinda Gates is more familiar with the concept of Social Changes.
As Melinda said in one of her interviews - Bill is more concerned with Technology and Data 
(Bill is proud of the Graphs that depict the continuous decline in Diseases and rise in indexes that show people's well being!)
while she is more into how to make people bring about changes in their lives, how to make people use the technologies 

 with the ultimate goal of bringing about intended changes.



Notes On Microsoft & Tech Community

I have introduced - Lots of fresh ideas, new outlooks, new perspectives from which to look at.


[No where is this trend more evident than Google.
To get a feeling - glimpse at acquisitions made by Google since last November (2013) (Companies that focus on Physical Digital Computing products)] 
(including 8 Robotics companies and Nest and Skybox Imaging)


Links


 Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, HP and SAP (simplify complexity) - are 5 other companies - where I am hoping - "being challenged" to be followed by innovations.



 Executives and Engineers at top companies - who believed that, they were the best in the world - were challenged.

Both - Companies and People - are inspired to do better work.
It would be fantastic - if this realization translates into lots of new innovations.

Microsoft
In the past few years Microsoft has lost the "Brand Appeal" it once enjoyed.
When people use Google (products and services), they feel proud (geeky, Trendy - whatever you say) of it.
When people use iPhone or iPad, they feel they are being smart by using Apple products. ("Apple products are amazing - beautiful and intuitive!")
Brand appeal depends more on "word of mouth" than on the products themselves.
One of the areas I can work on is to bring back that "Brand Appeal" to Microsoft products (that Microsoft once enjoyed).
"Microsoft is cool!" or maybe "Microsoft is back!"
"Surface is just awesome!"
Satya Nadella, being young (and upto date) - is focused on bringing ideas that are currently appreciated and successful in the Industry (even if the ideas are not as widespread and strictly followed at Microsoft):
  1. Cloud first, Mobile first
  2. Competing by quickly bringing products to Market and following up with quick iterations
  3. Data-driven Marketing and Data-driven Software Engineering process improvement
  4. Focused on Platforms and Services
[When I first read about Satya, (it was when he became the CEO) .... I read .... Neuroscience ... Books ... loves learning new things .. utilizing brain to get smarter .. Cricket ... family ... married the woman he met in high school ... I was like, Wow! this guy shares similarities with me!]

Steve Ballmer
Hanged onto - Windows and Office (even by sacrificing some of the areas where Microsoft could have dominated - Smartphone, Touchscreens)
Started and established:
  • Business Division; Cloud; Skype; Server; SQL Server; 
  • X-Box  and Gaming
  • .NET & Visual Studio



 Article: What The Next CTO of United States Could Focus On
  • Education : State Gov, Local Gov 
  • Redesigning the Healthcare System 
    • Frauds, etc. 
  • Business and Industry 
    • Small Business : Hassle free environment (Regulatory Info -> Web) 
  • Policy Advising 
    • Domains where Science,Technology and Public Policy Intersect and we need Policies tailored to 21st Century. 
    • Examples: 
      • Security & Privacy 
      • Drones 
      • FDA Drug Approval Process ($1 Billion & 10 years for each drug)
Government Services etc. as Platforms and Private Sector developing Services on top of Gov. Services
Open Government
  • Transparency; 
  • Citizen participation through Web & Communication Tech. etc.
  • Taking Successful ideas from Information & Communication Technology Industry and applying them to Government. Examples: 
  • Open Innovation: Prizes

Washington <Bridge> Technology, Science, Economics, Academia, Ideas


 The next CTO of United States could also act as a bridge between the President and the Congress.

Government Sectors that work with Science, Technology, Medical Innovation:

Funding Projects, Research Grants;
Determination of Focus, Agendas, Initiatives (e.g., Obama Brain Initiative, National Nanotechnology Initiative - NNI);
Challenges (e.g., DARPA Grand Challenge) etc. :
  • NASA, 
  • NSF, 
  • NIH, 
  • NAE, 
  • CDC, 
  • DoD, DARPA, NSA,
Article : Smart Government / Government 2.0


2.


Economics and Government:
"State Capitalism" is a bit like individual App Developers developing Text processing apps and Spreadsheet apps for the Windows platform. (Considering Windows - the "Platform" as the State and Apps - the "Services" - as Businesses.)
How Government and Businesses can be compared with "Platforms" and "Services". Infrastructure (Roads, Policing etc.) as "Platforms" and Individual Businesses as "Services".

From this perspective: The duty of Government is to create compelling "platforms" so that the private sector - "Apps and Services" can flourish.
Agenda:
  • Reinvention of Democracy with ICT.
    • Utilizing ICT, people can express their opinions at a low cost and be part of the Government in its day to day activities. Currently, the opportunity is limited to the voting day and for the next few years (after elections) - no way to interfere the Government.
  • A Government "of the people, for the people and" truly "by the people".
  • Now that we have Internet and Web spread throughout the world - it's time for us to reinvent Democracy.


Policy Research
Research - Incentives and "Nudge"s that work and that don't - integrate Behavioral Economics.


Philanthropy 2.0 
Application of Porter's Ideas - Running Businesses around Social Problems for Long term Societal Benefits. Positive Sum games - Mechanisms.
Show people Instances and Models.
"Sell" (thus, its Traditional Business; you are allowed to make profits and scale and reinvest to reach more people) the poor tools (Money, Phones, etc.) utilizing which they can overcome poverty.
  • Microcredit - Financial support to poor - take poor out of poverty.
  • ICT for poor - access to Mobile adds to a country's GDP. Mobile - access to Information and Communication; bypasses the need for Infrastructure (Roads, etc.)
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