Google's Peter Norvig is one of the top researchers in search and artificial intelligence but also something of a political junkie. His take on many points that swirled around the 2008 election is very insightful:
http://norvig.com/election-faq.html
Norvig is here at the Converge08 conference in Mountain View and just answered the question of how to advise President-elect Obama with regard to moving forward in technology.
Barney Pell of Powerset/ Microsoft fame is suggesting that Nanotech innovations and health innovations should be top priorities.
