Science and the Unknown, Russia, Society

12.07.2010 14:17

Skolkovo. Photo from website restate.ru

Skolkovo: how to squander a billion dollars?

A nuclear parity with America, spacewalks – those were the National Projects of the 1950s. And lo: our ancestors did reach the nuclear parity, were the first to exit into space. And before that, they taught everyone to read and write, eliminated homelessness, and even the electrification of the entire country was not mere words, though it did not bring us, as promised, in combination with the Soviet regime, to communism. Our ancestors were sometimes naive, sometimes fanatical people, not always wise, but without doubt, they had wings. The magnitude of plans gave them the meaning of life. The current generation, people over 50, still remembers some things, for example, the development of huge oil and gas fields. Those who do not remember can feel it, because it is due to this ancestral heritage that we now sweep our near and distant neighbors, have joined the mighty Eight, have something to drink and eat and are generally well represented in the Forbes list.

What are we going to surprise our descendants with? There have been a lot of conversations about national projects. We have to admit they were too damn little national in scope. It was always a level of some Soviet deputy minister: a computerization of schools, or some other trivial matters. And then, finally, here we are: the project of Skolkovo gets started. Judging by the voiced costs, it will be comparable with the construction project of St. Petersburg launched 300 years ago. From there we shall threaten the inhabitants of American Silicon Valley. And what shall we threaten them with? The ideologues get the most daring dreams. For instance, we might succeed in creating a popular computer game, or a new search engine. One of the mottoes of the Sun City already sounds like this: 'A Google a year!' In fact, it does not matter what to invent, if only we (well, someone in the project) earn profits. And then we can even make a bold push for a dandruff shampoo.

It should be noted that earlier similar 'valleys' around the world were created with a clear mission, which had to be implemented by pulling all the resources together. In Skolkovo, we have something else: they are going to build a paradise judging from the tax, fiscal, legislative and other perspectives, and then, due to prevailing paradise conditions and the wise stewardship of the presidential administration, as the ideologues assume, innovative fruit will start to ripen. Figuratively speaking, they are hoping to plant apple trees, put the quick-witted Newtons under them, shake the apple trees, and wait for serendipitous discoveries of new physical laws.

The author of these lines does not yet have a clear idea of the innocity Skolkovo project. I really don't want to grumble. Eventually, the idea to create something progressive and different from the gas pipe and the Kalashnikov automatic rifle has a right to exist. We can hardly manage to fill up the whole world with Googles (the actual Google – the readers know this – was made using primitive tools and without administrative resources). Something good may hopefully grow on the ground flavored with piles of monies and in an atmosphere of public attention. Some people with great ideas may also come over there. But so far the global project reflects, basically, just the appetites of its current participants, specifically, the appetites for disbursement tools. Here the scale is already atomic and cosmic.

By Sergey A. Kredov, BCM.ru staff writer
All publications by this author (2)