Germany To Create 'Super-High-Tech Ministry' For Research, Technology and Aerospace (science.org) 33
Germany will get a new "super-high-tech ministry" responsible for research, technology, and aerospace, according to the coalition agreement published by the incoming government this week. From a report: The announcement is one of several nods to science in the 144-page agreement, unveiled on 9 April following weeks of negotiations between the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) -- who together won the most seats in February's federal elections -- and the center-left Social Democrats. The agreement is expected to be formally approved by the three parties by early May, paving the way for CDU leader Friedrich Merz to be elected chancellor.
[...] The new agreement lists a number of scientific priorities for the new government, including support for artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, biotechnology, microchip development and production, and fusion energy. "Our goal is that the world's first fusion reactor should be realized in Germany," the text states. It also mentions personalized medicine, oceans research, and sustainability research as "strategic" areas. But the agreement does not include any budget estimates, and observers caution it is unclear where the money for new programs would come from. The agreement does affirm current commitments to increase the budgets of the country's main research organizations by 3% per year through 2030.
[...] The new agreement lists a number of scientific priorities for the new government, including support for artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, biotechnology, microchip development and production, and fusion energy. "Our goal is that the world's first fusion reactor should be realized in Germany," the text states. It also mentions personalized medicine, oceans research, and sustainability research as "strategic" areas. But the agreement does not include any budget estimates, and observers caution it is unclear where the money for new programs would come from. The agreement does affirm current commitments to increase the budgets of the country's main research organizations by 3% per year through 2030.
Its a little late for that (Score:4, Insightful)
And considering Germany has been actively de-industrializing lately you would wonder how they are going to do this with high energy costs https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]
So you want people to come in and invest with high energy costs or regulation?
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:3)
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Well, shutting down their nuclear plants in the midst of an energy debacle was pretty much the first step towards that objective.
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah man. There seems to be a deep-seeded belief among the institutional left and center-left the world over that self-destructive or foolish policy can only originate from the right. And that by virtue of having a D or L or whatever left party sigil after their names, they are constitutionally incapable of making bad decisions.
Hand-in-hand with the attitude that criticism of left and center-left policy can only come from bad actors operating in bad faith, this cock-sure solipsism has racked up quite a reco
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Right now much of the anglosphere left still seems to be on the transgender bandwagon for reasons that I can only assume are some vestigial lizard-brain need to rally around a designated victim...even if the victim must be willed into existence.
It's 11:55 pm EST. I almost made an entire day without thinking about trans people until you brought it up. Why are conservatives constantly thinking about them?
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:2)
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you see you're not allowed to see a man dressed as a woman, you have to truly see a real woman or you're a dogwhistling transphobic bigot.
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:2)
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it should be boring but you see dissent is not allowed when dealing with cults and religions. if i say "transwomen are biological males who identify as women" what i have said is objectively and factually correct. but because i do not prostrate myself in affirmation of their frankly delusional identity i am a dogwhistling transphobic bigot.
i know that only men can be transwomen, and only women can be transmen. it is by definition impossible for a female to be a transwomen because transwomen by definition ar
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As he mentioned me in his post, he obviously meant transnational.
Re: Its a little late for that (Score:2)
Naw dude. You live on *that* side therefore according to science you spend every waking moment obsessing over how you love whatever the stupidest, most extreme, thing anyone on your side has ever said or done.
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-:That was the last (or last two).
- there was no debacle
- they got shut down, when the perceived debacle was over
And were basically out of fuel at that time anyway
Re:Its a little late for that (Score:4, Insightful)
Well if the US won't do it...
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Building a fusion plant would certainly solve their energy cost concerns though.
No, even if the technical challenges of becoming energy positive and being able to continuously create power in significant quantities over extended periods of time would be solved, that would still not mean the energy produced this way would be cheaper than other energy sources. It is certainly not a mistake to do some research on the topic, but betting on this to solve the energy sourcing question instead of establishing viable alternatives right now would be madness.
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It most certainly will not be particularly cheap.
After all fuel needs to be produced.
We do not know long a "simple fusion" reactor can be operated until the radiation basically destroys it.
Cheaper than coal? Perhaps some times. Cheaper than gas, already unlikely. Cheaper than solar: never.
Especially not with the progress we are making with solar panels at the moment.
On the other hands, what the stupid uninformed naysayers here forget: German already has a working fusion reactor.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wi [wikipedia.org]
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Germany has nothing deindustrialized.
And the energy costs are just normal.
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Super-High-Tech-Ministry (Score:2)
Sounds like something from a 90s dubbed anime.
"Super-High-Tech-Ministry [...] artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, biotechnology, microchip development and production, and fusion energy"
"Does everyone have their Swatches?"
"You are Dyna Pink!" "But I don't like Pink!" "Too bad, pink only color I have left."
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A super-ministry means it collects responsibilities that would otherwise be scattered among several ministries, delegated to lower ranked officials. (The concept of super-ministries isn't new.) It does not necessarily mean a lot. It could be the upcoming minister of research has a particular appreciation for Aerospace, decided to give it extra visibility (and funding).
Not too optimistic (Score:3)
According to the -mostly AI- bullshit they imtend to subsidize made me hope the politicians who made the descisions won't be anywhere around the real project. Politicians speeches, ok, but what they said was buzzword-bingo in a soup of complete clueless techno babble. Who ever formulated the program obviously doesn't understand anything more technical than a light bulb.
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The solution to a stultifying bureaucracy is another bureaucracy?
I'm not optimistic either.
The French respond with ... (Score:2)
This will escalate (Score:2)
It won't end well.
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It will end well for the children of the elite. Lots of good paying government jobs with no actual work output expected.
Ursula scrounged up €800 billion that's now available for the bureaucracy.
HA (Score:2)
ministry = maxistry (Score:2)
New ministry means more job security for do-nothing bureaucrats.