In his State of the Union Address, President Obama issued a dramatic challenge for America to re-invent itself through technological innovation. « In a single generation, » said the President, « revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business. » One particularly dramatic example is the way we formulate a search query. The future of search technology is not some arcane question limited to the labs of Silicon Valley. Search is one of the tech engines that promises to power the country’s race against global competition.

In the same moment, in his State of the Union last night, President Obama called on Americans to invest in infrastructure and Clean energy technology.

President Obama called it a “Sputnik moment.” The phrase invokes the moment when the Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth, made Americans realize they were falling behind technologically—an epiphany that ultimately led to the Apollo missions that put the first men on the moon. Obama used the faltering economy and fear of emerging economic powers like China and India—even though there are compelling reasons to think that economies do not compete the way corporations do—to justify massive new investments in research and infrastructure. See more at The Eyes of the World Are On Silicon Valley.