"What is striking is the political class's lack of a compelling vision for enhancing human existence through technical innovation or an optimistic and executable plan for the future."
Yes, of course. But that's not their skillset. The political class must rely on the smartypants among us, who love to vigorously debate every aspect of what's most important and valuable. The future's only clear in retrospect. Europe doesn't have a DARPA (whose successes may be impossible to replicate, in any case). PS: most of all, there are valid referents of value beyond return on investment and valuations: namely benefits for humanity and the planet (that's the Bigger Picture).
"What is striking is the political class's lack of a compelling vision for enhancing human existence through technical innovation or an optimistic and executable plan for the future."
Yes, of course. But that's not their skillset. The political class must rely on the smartypants among us, who love to vigorously debate every aspect of what's most important and valuable. The future's only clear in retrospect. Europe doesn't have a DARPA (whose successes may be impossible to replicate, in any case). PS: most of all, there are valid referents of value beyond return on investment and valuations: namely benefits for humanity and the planet (that's the Bigger Picture).
US innovation isn't really dependent on DARPA any more.
Mostly it is private money (pensions and endowments investing in Venture).
Europe simply needs to take more risk and trust entrepreneurs more.