There are a lot of problems facing the world right now. To decide which to confront, you must know enough about the overall class of problems to say "yes, I want to work on x" because I feel that breakthrough "y" makes it possible to solve this problem and others aren't working on it for so and so reasons. How does one:

  1. Notice the problems facing the world and their severity
  2. Become aware of the new technologies are being developed right now
  3. Recognize that "y" makes it possible to crack "x"?

I'd appreciate recommendations of books / textbooks / videos / articles / resources that helped you with any of the above (I can probably get access to any book you suggest - feel free to suggest literature that's out of print).

An example of this would be realizing that proteins ~= molecular nanotechnology (2), that molecular nanotechnology has such and such applications (1), and that with new breakthroughs in the field, such nanotech has now become a lot more possible than it was before (3).

New Answer
New Comment