Is it time for a digital reality check?

NEW YORK--Solar panels clusters in New Mexico, wind farms dotting the Great Plains? That's all very nice. But that railroad tunnel in Baltimore is important, too.

On a gray and rainy Thursday, I went to Time Inc.'s midtown Manhattan headquarters for what was supposed to be a panel about the company's flagship magazine's annual "Person of the Year" honor. But amid consistently grave economic news, not to mention the fact that everyone in attendance seemed to agree that President-elect Barack Obama eclipses any other options for the award, the conversation was less about a magazine headline and more about the future of the country.

After a hefty fall season of digital-media and Web conferences, I was surprised to witness that outside the culture of think-big tech pundits, "the future" is a lot more mundane.

The road out of the economic crisis is "not a refund check...not more houses with more flat-screen TVs...(but) bridges that work and schools that inspire students."

--Elizabeth Edwards

"This is what President Obama's going to face," said panelist Elizabeth Edwards, Center for American Progress senior fellow and wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards. The road out of the economic crisis is "not a refund check" encouraging more consumption, "not more houses with more flat-screen TVs...(but) bridges that work and schools that inspire students."

The panelist lineup was impressive: in addition to Edwards, there was NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams; Mad Men actor John Slattery; personal-finance talking head Suze Orman; Saturday Night Live head writer Seth Meyers; and congressional Rep. Artur Davis (D-Alabama). None of them were the sorts of people whom I'd seen onstage in the past two months of tech industry events, from the Web 2.0 Expo in New York to the Future of Web Apps in London to last week's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco (which featured Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and former Vice President Al Gore, among others).

To be sure, the Techmeme set talks a whole lot about recession and recovery these days. Al Gore has urged us to move beyond "the gee-whiz stuff." Back in April, Tim O'Reilly expressed mild disgust at the fact that some of the U.S.' best and sharpest minds were busy building new ways to throw virtual hamburgers at each other on Facebook.

The problem is that some of these digital thought leaders' "real-world solutions" are still painted with that wide-eyed, change-the-world Valley sparkle. There is a distinct soldier-on, innovation-won't stop attitude, even as dozens of tech companies slice off a fifth, a quarter, a third of their workforces. Tech innovation will change the world in big ways, but it will change the world in small and unglamorous ways, too, and we're not hearing a whole lot of that.

At the Web 2.0 Summit, Gore suggested that in ten years we can build a "unified national smart grid" of sustainable electricity, a plan that would create thousands of jobs but which critics say might not even work. Paul Otellini excitedly showed off an Intel prototype of a camera-like gadget that could do language translations in seconds. Other panels at the same conference were all about consumer solar equipment retail, home DNA tests, and $100,000 electric sports cars.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams

(Credit: NBC)

There was none of that on Thursday at Time Inc.'s headquarters. Williams suggested that perhaps President Obama's priorities should, FDR-style, putting people to work repairing a national infrastructure that's in bad disrepair. "Would it be that bad if we had a big jobs program?" Williams posed.

He asked why New York's LaGuardia Airport is in disrepair, why some of the city's infrastructure hasn't been touched since the days of controversial public works czar Robert Moses, and why it was possible that a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last year. He asked why the U.S.' only high-speed train line, Amtrak's Acela Express, has to slow to 25 miles per hour to get through a tunnel outside Baltimore that dates back to the 1930s.

If people were put to work repairing it, Williams said, "you could get to Washington 20 minutes earlier."

The nifty smart-camera gadget that Otellini showed off at the Web 2.0 Summit might as well have been a flying car on The Jetsons in comparison.

[Pete Bardo]

You mean to say that Americans should be producing more than web sites? What a concept....

[Lerianis]

Hey, people have been saying this for YEARS. The fact is, were the monies of China and India to be valued CORRECTLY, the United States would be looking better for production. If China and India also had UNIONS that could protect their workers and get legitimate wages, the United States would start looking better as well.

[rapier1]

Technology is built on the basic infrastructure of modern civilization. Without reliable transportation, without safe water, without robust electrical grids all of the gee whiz stuff we can think of simply falls over and dies. Basic infrastructure isn't sexy but its a necessity.

[timber2005]

Exactly. Our "foundation" is crumbling. Apparently we almost need another Canada to VA blackout to get people in government talking.

[Penguinisto]

(the political/economy half):

This will be fun to watch... the Dems will have the perfect opportunity to do everything in their power to right the economy. If those efforts fail, they only have themselves to blame (because blame doesn't work so well when folks know that you have at least two years to actually do something about a problem).

To be honest, I'm thinking the GOP is breathing a great big sigh of relief... unless some fantastic recovery comes out of nowhere, they can hang around for four years and pick up what's left (as Reagan did with Carter in 1980).

--

(the tech vs. world part):

Dunno... while gadgets are certainly irrelevant to progress, there is a lot more tech than you think in the basics - tunneling done by TBM's instead of dynamite and pick-axes, more robust and sophisticated controls to maximize efficiency, more efficiency in tech itself to minimize its impact overall... more automation (with enough redundancy and oversight) can handle bigger loads - in power, water, sewage, whatever.

IOW, I don;t necessarily think that tech is some sort of insular thing. Even the solar/wind farms do a lot towards infrastructure, and even in economics as our economy becomes less linch-pinned to things like, say, oil speculation.

/P

/P

[Dobeee]

With all due respect to the folks at Time, this sounds like a lot of backwards thinking and then we all run off in the wrong direction. Pollution is shrinking our arteries and killing us, we're always one disease away from an epidemic, one storm away from a major catastrophe. All the money in the world can't rebuild ancient Rome anyway. The internet allows us to do at a distance what we've always had to do face to face. Not to mention, the population is getting older, less mobile. If we could let the asphalt and concrete die altogether, we'd have a lovely and healthy landscape for the future, and an unlimited bread basket. I'm not saying don't fix the bridge, just put some creative minds on it, and first let's decide where we want to go. I could live in a cave, as long as it has electricity and wi-fi.

[Lerianis]

No, you couldn't. Really, we DO need to increase our infrastructure and rebuild it..... or find a way to make them flying cars reality, so we don't have to WORRY about roads anymore.'
As to education.... we HAVE good education in this country.... in science, in math, etc. It's the OTHER things that we don't have good education in, because we expect a lot of 'memorization and regurgitation'.... which NO ONE is good at.
My teacher FINALLY got that my sophomore year in high school, and they made all tests OPEN BOOK, like real life is open book! Once they did that.... wow..... the rates of people passing tests went up big time, even on ESSAY questions.

[Penguinisto]

...so how does that bread and electricity get to your house/cave/whatever ? Logistics and all that... :)

[Renegade Knight]

Grasshopper. You have some right ideas, but completely lack understanding of the fundamentals. You are not ready to snatch the pebble from my hand.

[globalist_agenda]

Brian Williams needs a lesson in "Big Labor" unions. Williams apparently hasn't figured out that big unions won't allow infrastrcuture work to be done by anyone else more cheaply and efficiently. It costs about $1 billion per mile to get anything built, and it takes years. Projects always cost 2-3x more and take 2x as long as estimated. Williams could do his viewers a service by going undercover as a pothole filler. After hearing other pothole fillers warn him to "slow down", disappear after lunch for a few hours, and then be managed by two other supervisors who just stand around, he would truly understand why our "infrastructure is crumbling".

[Lerianis]

1 billion per mile my ******* ass! Frankly, Maryland has put it closer to 20,000 a mile, for labor, for materials, etc. I don't know WHAT THE HECK you think you are spouting and that people are gonna bite at, but I'm DEFINITELY not biting.
Unions are NOT THE PROBLEM. They are the solution to the problem of businesses not looking out for their workers and treating their workers right. If the business would do that..... no more need for unions. But EVERY ******* TIME we give them the chance to prove that...... they are the next freaking WAL-MART!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't trust businesses anymore. I've been ******* over by them too much in my life, until I finally got a paralegal job, which my boss treats me like FAMILY and doesn't do anything to me he wouldn't want to do to his own family.

[Renegade Knight]

Must be your state. Not mine. Our guys don't have time to get everthing done, disspearing for a couple hours is not an option. Some of your points are good though. The solution starts with congress. Engineering and Construction are easy. All the rules, regs, and process to be allowed to do Engineering and Consruction waste a lot of time.

Ironicly most of those rules, regs, and processes came about from congress listening to people who complain. Picture 300 million rules (one for everone to make them all happy) about how we should get things done. Then guess hwat happens. All 300 million complain about how slow thing are.

[stillgrossman]

The panelist lineup was impressive? Elizabeth Edwards, a News anchor, an actor, a personal-finance talking head, a Saturday Night Live head writer and a Congressman? I kinda get the first and last panelist, but these are the people picking The Times' Man of the Year and solving our country's problems?

Um. Yeah.

[JoshMiller79]

Bah, who needs to rebuild old failing buildings and roads and trains.

That's not profitable int he short term.

These are all good ideas, it's a matter of getting people, and by people I mean "the corporate Americans" to see past their next quarter profits to "the big picture of progress".

[punterjoe]

There is a window of opportunity here. Even the diverse panel mentioned here seems to agree on that. I hope the incoming administration can convince all squabbling interests that business as usual is not a valid option & get the concessions required to get things going. It's a daunting task, but given what they have already accomplished, I can think of no group more likely to find a way to "git 'er done".

[kcochrane]

I?m really looking forward to seeing what happens. So many companies have amazing innovation capabilities and are working behind the scenes on making a difference. Hopefully the President Elect will take charge and lead those companies not making changes in the right direction.