Germany To Create 'Super-High-Tech Ministry' For Research, Technology and Aerospace (science.org)
- Reference: 0177004121
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/04/11/2121251/germany-to-create-super-high-tech-ministry-for-research-technology-and-aerospace
- Source link: https://www.science.org/content/article/germany-creates-super-high-tech-ministry-research-technology-and-aerospace
> The announcement is one of several nods to science in the 144-page agreement, unveiled on 9 April following weeks of negotiations between the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) -- who together won the most seats in February's federal elections -- and the center-left Social Democrats. The agreement is expected to be formally approved by the three parties by early May, paving the way for CDU leader Friedrich Merz to be elected chancellor.
>
> [...] The new agreement lists a number of scientific priorities for the new government, including support for artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, biotechnology, microchip development and production, and fusion energy. "Our goal is that the world's first fusion reactor should be realized in Germany," the text states. It also mentions personalized medicine, oceans research, and sustainability research as "strategic" areas. But the agreement does not include any budget estimates, and observers caution it is unclear where the money for new programs would come from. The agreement does affirm current commitments to increase the budgets of the country's main research organizations by 3% per year through 2030.
[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/germany-creates-super-high-tech-ministry-research-technology-and-aerospace
Super-High-Tech-Ministry (Score:2)
Sounds like something from a 90s dubbed anime.
"Super-High-Tech-Ministry [...] artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, biotechnology, microchip development and production, and fusion energy"
"Does everyone have their Swatches?"
"You are Dyna Pink!" "But I don't like Pink!" "Too bad, pink only color I have left."
Re: (Score:2)
A super-ministry means it collects responsibilities that would otherwise be scattered among several ministries, delegated to lower ranked officials. (The concept of super-ministries isn't new.) It does not necessarily mean a lot. It could be the upcoming minister of research has a particular appreciation for Aerospace, decided to give it extra visibility (and funding).
Not too optimistic (Score:3)
According to the -mostly AI- bullshit they imtend to subsidize made me hope the politicians who made the descisions won't be anywhere around the real project. Politicians speeches, ok, but what they said was buzzword-bingo in a soup of complete clueless techno babble. Who ever formulated the program obviously doesn't understand anything more technical than a light bulb.
The French respond with ... (Score:2)
... a Super-Duper-High-Tech ministry. The arms race is on.
Its a little late for that (Score:4, Insightful)
And considering Germany has been actively de-industrializing lately you would wonder how they are going to do this with high energy costs [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]
So you want people to come in and invest with high energy costs or regulation?
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimvinoski/2024/02/29/german-deindustrialization-is-a-wake-up-call-for-us-manufacturers/
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:2)
Yeah... they should just give up and perish. Dodo style... (/s)
Re: (Score:3)
Well, shutting down their nuclear plants in the midst of an energy debacle was pretty much the first step towards that objective.
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah man. There seems to be a deep-seeded belief among the institutional left and center-left the world over that self-destructive or foolish policy can only originate from the right. And that by virtue of having a D or L or whatever left party sigil after their names, they are constitutionally incapable of making bad decisions.
Hand-in-hand with the attitude that criticism of left and center-left policy can only come from bad actors operating in bad faith, this cock-sure solipsism has racked up quite a record in the last five years.
Prolonged covid school closures in the US come from this: the right was for opening schools therefore it was good and righteous for the left to close them.
In Germany it took the form of shutting down the nuclear plants *after* the cheap natural gas from Russia stopped flowing.
Right now much of the anglosphere left still seems to be on the transgender bandwagon for reasons that I can only assume are some vestigial lizard-brain need to rally around a designated victim...even if the victim must be willed into existence.
Deindustrialization (with the understanding that slave labor in China and Vietnam will still make our stuff for us) is admittedly a bipartisan case of stupid but then again no one political movement has the monopoly on truth so it stands to reason that no one has the monopoly on bullshit either.
Re: (Score:2)
> Right now much of the anglosphere left still seems to be on the transgender bandwagon for reasons that I can only assume are some vestigial lizard-brain need to rally around a designated victim...even if the victim must be willed into existence.
It's 11:55 pm EST. I almost made an entire day without thinking about trans people until you brought it up. Why are conservatives constantly thinking about them?
Re: (Score:3)
Well if the US won't do it...
Re: (Score:3)
At best it sounds like they're just changing priorities and changing around org charts for whatever bureaucracy is supposed to oversee it all. The summary makes it sound like they're chasing too many rabbits though. Just pick two of the areas listed, or everything suffers from a lack of investment. The more cynical take is that someone has friends doing research in those areas who wouldn't mind the money funnel spraying Euros in their direction for a change. Of course that just means the recipients of waste
Re: (Score:2)
> Building a fusion plant would certainly solve their energy cost concerns though.
No, even if the technical challenges of becoming energy positive and being able to continuously create power in significant quantities over extended periods of time would be solved, that would still not mean the energy produced this way would be cheaper than other energy sources. It is certainly not a mistake to do some research on the topic, but betting on this to solve the energy sourcing question instead of establishing viable alternatives right now would be madness.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it's kind of trying to take the second step before the first. I mean, the CDU/CSU politicians who are likely to be in power are the same bunch that put in every effort over decades to make sure that trains no longer run on time, and the SPD politicians are the same bunch that made sure everyone running a company spends more time on bureaucracy than anything else. And all of them played a vital role in making energy as expensive as possible, in a number of ways, and to turn the domestic army into a dysf