How Can BHI Help Guide New Strategic Economic Sectors?

It is well established that certain technologies and the industries based upon them have served in specific historical times and places as “strategic” engines of economic growth. This line of thinking as a systematic basis for policy making has an important antecedent in the Japan Industrial Policy Group Chaired by Julian Gresser in 1981 while serving as an advisor to Richard Holbrooke, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, under a fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. The specific mandate of the JIPG was to develop an effective response to the Japanese governments “strategic industry” (senryaku sangyo) targeting practices, in particular the challenge to the U.S. semiconductor industry. Japan’s increasing competitive advantage in the strategic semiconductor industry, the U.S. State Department was concerned, could likely give other Japanese industries that were closely linked or dependent upon semiconductors an “unfair” competitive advantage over American industries. A systemic countervailing strategic response was deemed crucial. But what should be the nature of this response?

The JIPG included talented representatives from every major U.S. government agency and eight Congressional Committees. Industry leaders in particular Bob Noyce founder and Chairman of Intel Corporation and the senior leadership of Texas Instruments and the U.S. Semiconductor Association provided essential guidance. The product of the one year initiative was an effective industrial policy for the electronics industry which involved close collaboration between the U.S. federal government, the industry, and concerned members from the general public. The work of the JIPG has strongly influenced a wide range of subsequent policies, laws, and regulations up to the present day.

Building on the experience of the JIPG Julian Gresser was invited to lead a two year project at Harvard Law School and MIT’s Program on Science, Technology, and Society which included a special cross disciplinary course on the Legal and Policy Issues of Strategic Industries. The project resulted in a book Partners in Prosperity—Strategic Industries for the U.S. and Japan(McGraw Hill 1984/Japanese edition: Cho Hanei Sengen, TBS Britannica, 1985). The following are excerpted chapters on the Trigger Method and a process for accelerating the diffusion of strategic technologies. It offers a framework for identifying which specific sectors are, or will be, strategic and the degree and pathways of their “strategic leverage.”

During the intervening years there has developed an extensive body of writing and international practice on strategic technologies and industries, among the most prominent of which is the present Chinese government’s strategic industry policies, plans, laws, and initiatives. Since the early days of the JIPG there has also been much progress through intergovernmental negotiations in developing comprehensive international trade principles that seeks to harmonize national industrial policies within the context of an emerging international trade infrastructure.

At the same time policy analysis of strategic industrial sectors continues. One important example is the 2006 Report of the RAND Corporation’ National Security Division (NSD) prepared for the National Intelligence Council which focused on Bio/Nano, and Information Sectors. The Report particularly cites the importance of technological integration.

“The previous sections identify likely developments in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science and engineering and manufacturing, and information and communications technology by 2020. But it is the integration of these developments that can have the most profound impact on society by providing multifunctional technologies to meet specific application needs. For example, wide availability of Internet access required a combination of mathematical algorithms for transmission and recognition of information packets, sufficient computing speed and memory, materials and engineering capability for wired networks, and software to allow non-engineers the use of electronic mail and Web sites. Maintaining the Internet’s use as a state-of-the-art data transmission network and one with worldwide reach, even into rural areas, is now requiring, for example, broadband optical fiber and wireless networks and encryption algorithms. As technology increases in capability and sophistication, it continues to integrate new developments, often from diverse areas of science. Thus, the integration of developments in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials, and information and communications is essential to the maturation of the technologies we are describing to achieve their full functionality and impact.” (“The Global Technology Revolution 2020, In-Depth Analyses Bio/Nano/Materials/Information Trends, Drivers, Barriers, and Social Implications” Richard Silberglitt, Philip S. Antón, David R. Howell, Anny Wong with Natalie Gassman, Brian A. Jackson, Eric Landree, Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Elaine M. Newton, and Felicia Wu Prepared for the National Intelligence Council, RAND National Security Research Division 2006)

Since 2006 there have been many important discoveries in cognitive and neuroscience and quantum physics and derivative technologies—in particular the mapping of the human brain in the Human Connectome Project, and the advent of quantum computing which is still in its infancy. These discoveries and their practical implementation through innovations will add powerful additional drivers to the RAND NSD’s analysis.

Big Heart Intelligence (BHI) can be understood and developed as part of the new frontier of the cognitive and quantum sciences. There is some early research and practical clinical observations in the west coinciding with insights from many cultures that the heart is an powerful intelligent discerning organ with its own distinct neuro-endocrine system that in optimal health functions coherently with the brain and other systems in the body. At the moment these findings are highly controversial and generally do not appear to have been subjected to rigorous peer reviews.

The purpose of the BHI Research Consortium is to explore the role of heart from the perspective of well-established systems science and practice by asking basic questions such as: What are the existing networks of the relevant systemsof Heart, Brain, (and possibly gut—ie. enteric nervous system)? How are they connected and function together? What are the signals between and among them; how are they formed, delivered, processed, communicated, received, and understood? How do these networks optimally function together to accomplish optimal results? How do the participants inside these intelligent networks themselves affect the network(s), and the data derived from them, and what is the effect of these networks (cultures) upon the participants (3rd and 4th order cybernetic effects)?

Against this background an important question is what might be the advantages to society should BHI become an integral part of an emerging new nano-bio-info-cognitive-quantum infrastructure? The following chart suggests some possible areas of convergence.


 

nano-info1

 


 

NBICMap

 

 


 

What will transform these early scientific findings into practical uses in business and economic policy is the design and implementation of a New Framework of Collaborative Innovation. The practice of Collaborative Innovation will be powerfully driven by the application of a suite of proven methodologies and best practices, embodied in online and mobile apps and supported by the Smart BHI Platform and Codex being developed through the BHI Global Network and similar networks. The methodologies are already well developed. A blue print for their incorporation within the BHI Platform and Codex is ready for funding. Our goal is to apply the principles of collaborative innovation and the BHI Platform and Codex with the goal of accelerating breakthroughs at the “intertidal zones” or points of interconnection among the six strategic sectors noted above.

This practice of collaborative innovation itself will require a rethinking of the role of public and private sectors. One important innovation is the International Beneficial Hybrid Network (IBHN) which is described elsewhere on this web site.  The IHBN is an organizational innovation that is perfectly adapted to the systemic approach we are advocating. IBHNs will act as conveyor belts directing gigantic pools of private and public capital to projects at the intersection of the above six sectors, many of which we predict can will be integrated and enhanced by BHI. BHI’s Alliance Charter is an example of a meta-legal collaborative innovation that can help support these IBHNs.

Conclusion—Research on past strategic technologies and industries confirms that in every historic case the driving force for economic growth and also job creation has been the rapid diffusion through innovation of the strategic technologies outward– at first through closely linked and convergent sectors which act as conveyor belts, and then with accelerating pace to many other segments of the economy. In fact, most economic historians attribute this process of accelerating diffusion and creative adaptation of strategic technologies as the key driver. In most instances governments have helped with varying degrees of success to build the supporting markets and infrastructure though a broad range policies, laws, financial and other incentives. The most successful example is the Japanese government strategic industry policies from 1960s to the late 1980s, which themselves have had an important influence on present Chinese industrial policies. As noted in the 2006 RAND NSD and many subsequent studies five sectors (bio, nano, information, cognitive, and quantum) will likely account for approximately $ 200-$300 trillion in new value measured by global GNP over the next 50-100 years. BHI can enhance the productivity of each of these sectors and become a crucible of convergence for all of them.


 

FiveGC