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So here we are on another planet. It’s the world’s first mountaintop observatory. A
city out of wind. The most instrumented tree in the Sierra Nevada. This is a 16th Century
book, I don’t want to touch it. A solar-powered light. An implantable bio artificial kidney.
There’s oil and gas emanating out from the sea floor here. It’s the social dimension,
the whole ethos. The remarkable thing about us as human beings is that we can take those
possibilities. With infrastructure that California has become famous for. Either by road, train,
boat, plane. We’re here to generate new knowledge and new understanding. How do you
solve problems that are irreconcilable? How much water are the trees using? How many deer
to mountain lions need to attack? How could we actually use the science to make the world
different? And wondering about how that all happened is what separates us from the animals.
To get somebody kick started and get them moving in that direction. To draw the new
pictures and draw the new diagrams and invent the new words. To get out among the stars.
To expand and share culture. To push back the frontiers of science. These are critical
issues for California and for the world. But there’s more, what else can we imagine?
If California can’t save the world, I don’t know who can.
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