The uncomfortable truth of Moonshot mindset on Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño

The Bomb Moonshot

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If one had to summarize the twentieth century in few key events, it would surely have both World Wars, including the Nazis and the atomic bomb; and the Space Age when, for the first-time, humans left our planet and explored the cosmos. Two of these events—the atomic bomb and the moon landing—have deep scientific and technological underpinnings. The atomic bomb culminated years of intense and focused basic research on nuclear physics, with the Americans fearing what the Nazis would do if they got it first. It required a huge cooperation between scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and other experts. It involved both basic research and applied physics in full synchrony between each other, and against the unknown progress of the enemy. Americans had to beat the Nazis.

The Moon Moonshot

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

So profound the moon missions were, that since then, we even refer to enormous leaps of science and technology as “Moonshots.” Companies, like Google, create “Moonshot Factory” divisions where the most impactful research is done. Today, when we dare to aim for almost-too-hard to achieve, we call it a Moonshot. When in 2016 the White House of the USA announced its vision to cure cancer, they called it the “Cancer Moonshot.” Hard to think of a better case of what happens when a country decides to go full steam with science, technology, and research into a concrete goal. Like the Americans did with the atomic bomb. All types of scientists and engineers worked full steam ahead for a single, concrete, and very challenging goal. In the case of the moon, there were also very concrete strategic and political goals.

The Moonshot Mindset

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If we went to the moon, can we do a Cancer Moonshot and cure cancer? Can we do a Poverty Moonshot and eradicate poverty? A Climate Change Moonshot? Can we make a Moonshot Factory?

We do not have a Poverty or a Climate Change Moonshot, but we do have a Cancer Moonshot. In 2016 the US White House announced a program to find a vaccine for cancer by 2020, and they specifically called it “Cancer Moonshot.” The then-president, Barack Obama, called for the “same sense of urgency and an all-hands-on-deck approach, where everybody pulled together, […] all to look at where, if we really put our shoulder behind the wheel, where can we make the biggest impact as quickly as possible.”