U.S. GAO to School U.S. Congress on Quantum Computing and Other Disruptive Technologies
GAO Center to Educate Congress on the Big Picture of Future Tech
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ “The deeper dive into, say, quantum computing, being able to understand what that is and what that really means, there are other parts of GAO, such as our new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics team that can provide that information,” Blockwood said. “The center itself cannot answer all of those [questions] unilaterally and independently. But working with other organizations within GAO, it certainly can provide that full picture of raising awareness, understanding broad trends, how it’s interacting with other trends, the implications, opportunities and challenges.”
The Government Accountability Office’s Center for Strategic Foresight had its coming-out party earlier this month, establishing what the group would like to be an annual conference about the biggest technological trends and issues that should be on lawmakers’ radar.
+ “It is very important to ensure that those in Congress understand—and have a good understanding of—emerging issues and trends,” he said. “It is easier said than done to keep track of not only what’s on the horizon—what’s coming up in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years—but how those are interacting with other trends, particularly in technology, but not just in technology.”
+ Going forward, the center plans to look into a wide variety of technologies and futuristic ideas, including acellular agriculture, genome editing, privacy issues, artificial intelligence, brain augmentation, 5G and quantum computing, to name a few. But the center won’t just be looking at the cutting-edge; history is important, too, Blockwood said.
Source: Nextgov. Aaron Boyd, GAO Center to Educate Congress on the Big Picture of Future Tech…
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