Solve for X might end political gridlock

Speaker John Boehner

As the past has demonstrated, technology is advancing; but the future needs audacious leaders. So that's why a community is asking people who truly want to transform the world to join them in “solving for X.” That means even solving the political gridlock in Washington.

Solve for X describes itself as  “a community of individuals and organizations that work together to accelerate progress on moonshots—and what better group of people to work with than those already thinking about our country’s future? As Susan Molinari, our VP of public policy and government affairs, said at the event: “Policymakers are trying to solve big, intractable problems—and so are engineers. Engineers are tackling challenges that have no answers to date, and so are our policymakers.”If we’re going to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, we need more people and teams to take on “moonshots”—audacious projects that create 10x improvement, not 10 percent. Part of that involves encouraging and celebrating the audacity of the attempt.

The group goes on to describe how they function by telling us, “we partnered with Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to run a special session of Solve for X on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to discuss and debate audacious science and technology moonshots that could transform the world.”

The gathering of important leaders that included members of Congress, exceptional entrepreneurs, pioneers in their respect fields of engineering, technology, math, manufacturing and science and other areas brainstormed and came up ideas to advance America's future. Some examples include:

• Neil Gershenfeld and Nadya Peek from the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms proposed setting up FabLabs to bring manufacturing back to America—and in a way appropriate to the 21st century


• Theresa Condor from NanoSatisfi proposed an inexpensive way to give all students direct access to personal satellites to conduct their own science experiments and to transform adoption of STEM


• Chris Lewicki from Planetary Resources proposed mining asteroids for natural resources

Solving social and political problems is key to moving people ahead to work together to support jobs and progress in business, according to the Solve for X concept.  Here is its specific invitation with respect to the fledgling opportunity to be part of a growing community in conflict and problem resolution:

Solve for X is asking for recruits, those people who believe they can pioneer new ideas and have a bold vision of what they want to accomplish. Start right now and get Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama to shake hands and promise to work together themselves for the same objectives set by Solve for X---transforming the world into a better place.