FROM the Longitude Prize offered by Britain’s parliament in 1714, as reward for a way for ships to determine their location when out of sight of land, to the Orteig Prize, offered in 1919 for a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by aeroplane, the giving of prizes for technological endeavour has had an illustrious history. Such prizes fell out of favour after the second world war, but a renaissance began in 1996 when Peter Diamandis, an entrepreneurial engineer, announced a $10m purse, the XPRIZE, for the launch of a reusable manned spaceship. A torch had been lit.
On May 7th and 8th, the XPRIZE foundation, which exists to keep that flame alight, gathered hundreds of corporate bosses, philanthropists and ideas merchants in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, for its annual “Visioneering” workshop, to dream up new prizes. Though some believe the torch is flickering (there is enough dissatisfaction with the foundation’s management among its employees that Robert Weiss, its president, has promised that there will be action on the matter), the dreaming went on.
Prize...
from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1IDn1PT
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