The beginning of the end of America's global dominance in technology

In a world where conspiracy theorists are still trying to claim that NASA faked the moon landings (hint: they not only didn't, they couldn't have), it probably shouldn't be a huge surprise that American's don't always appreciate just how much they've benefited from the Apollo program. Modern technology ranging from microprocessors to microwave ovens, from burglar alarms to heart monitors, and from aluminum foil to dialysis machines, all of it owes a debt to the Apollo program. The huge boost to American technological development has lasted for decades.

But Apollo ended over forty years ago, and the Republicans who currently control all three branches of the U.S. government are very much antagonistic towards the actual science which fuels genuine technological development... and very much in the pockets of a variety of monopolistic corporations who are desperate to stifle competition, and innovation, from smaller firms. With China, and various EU countries, all pushing in the opposite direction, it really was only a matter of time before America's Apollo-fuelled technological edge ran out. The question really wasn't one of whether it would happen; it was only a question of when.

Well, I think we know the answer to that question: now. As reported by Bloomberg:

The U.S. dropped out of the top 10 in the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index for the first time in the six years the gauge has been compiled. South Korea and Sweden retained their No. 1 and No. 2 rankings.

The index scores countries using seven criteria, including research and development spending and concentration of high-tech public companies.

The U.S. fell to 11th place from ninth mainly because of an eight-spot slump in the post-secondary, or tertiary, education-efficiency category, which includes the share of new science and engineering graduates in the labor force. Value-added manufacturing also declined. Improvement in the productivity score couldn’t make up for the lost ground.

“I see no evidence to suggest that this trend will not continue,” said Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation in Washington, D.C. “Other nations have responded with smart, well-funded innovation policies like better R&D tax incentives, more government funding for research, more funding for technology commercialization initiatives.”

That point about this being an ongoing trend is particularly important. The U.S., once the country that put men on the moon, had already dropped to 9th after years of poor policies; today was not the day that America dropped out of the #1 spot, it was only the day that they finally dropped out of the top ten.

And while the U.S. does play host to the corporate headquarters of companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, none of them are doing all that much innovating anymore; they're just more monopolies, consolidating their gains while avoiding their taxes. The actual innovation is happening elsewhere, a momentum shift that may prove incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

So, where is innovation happening, you ask?

South Korea remained the global-innovation gold medalist for the fifth consecutive year. Samsung Electronics Co., the nation’s most-valuable company by market capitalization, has received more U.S. patents in the 2000s than any firm except International Business Machines Corp. And its semiconductors, smartphones and digital-media equipment spawned an ecosystem of Korean suppliers and partners similar to what Japan developed around Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.

China moved up two spots to 19th, buoyed by its high proportion of new science and engineering graduates in the labor force and increasing number of patents by innovators such as Huawei Technologies Co. [...] Japan, one of three Asian nations in the top 10, rose one slot to No. 6. France moved up to ninth from 11th, joining five other European economies in the top tier. Israel rounded out this group and was the only country to beat South Korea in the R&D category.

The new isn't great for countries like my own home of Canada, either (the home of CANDU reactors and the Canadarm dropped from #20 to #22), but it's the ongoing shift away from American dominance in science and technology which is likely to have the biggest global impact. Most American policymakers cite America's history of technological innovation as being a potential source of solutions for a lot of what's ailing the U.S. right now, but the reality is that American isn't the driving force for science and technology in the world, anymore, and hasn't been for a long time. Continuing to make policy as if the U.S. were still capable of calling the tune, as it were, in any field of technological endeavor, rather than just being another nation in the pack, has all sorts of disastrous potential.

This is what I mean, when I say that we're watching the end of the American era in global politics. Just like the British did, as faltering European colonial expansion brought an end to the British Empire, Americans are now going to have to spend the next few generations watching as other nations move to the forefront in areas that American once dominated, with no obvious path to turning that trend around. And while it won't necessarily be China that takes their place, the fact that they moved up into the top-20 for the first time may just be a sign of things to come.

It may be time to start learning Mandarin, folks. Just saying.

Head over to Bloomberg for the complete list.