Statement of Purpose

Here are some talking points I wrote up for describing my interests for graduate study. It's not very well-organized. I'd need to fix it up and get more specific about the technical details for a real statement of purpose.

There are many challenges facing the nation and the world today. The challenges need to be met within a further constraint of providing a high standard of living without depleting the very resources required to maintain a high standard of living. It seems that major changes are pending for a new economy based on new technology and infrastructure.

I'm interested broadly in prioritizing these challenges and prioritizing technology development or policy implementation. One possibility is that if people pursue their interests, the best and most effective ideas will meet each challenge as necessary. The market should be able to automatically prioritize correctly to invent pollution control methods and more efficient ways to use resources while rebuilding the economy and reforming healthcare.

On the other hand, if relative impacts, especially long term impacts, of potential innovations or policies could be quantized, it would be a very effective way to prioritize and meet challenges we face. I'm interested in finding ways to allocate intellectual resources and capital for the greatest gain.

Ideas can only be sorted by quality if the quality is correctly correlated with the price. However, social systems are interrelated and complex. It can be hard to gauge the effectiveness and thus value of a new technology because it can be hard to identify causal links, especially when there are delays in the system. Then it would be difficult for the market to prioritize effectively.

It would be best if each innovation was subjected to systems dynamics analysis to evaluate its potential and how well it integrates with other innovations and existing infrastructure. Solutions can be optimized to complement each other rather than inadvertently canceling out each other's intended effects.

I'm interested in technology and policy that can achieve an equilibrium in resource use. These new innovations and policies together may describe a new economic model that is not based on exponential capital growth. Alternatively, we may find that there is room for exponential growth that can still use resources sustainably.