Brewing and Beverage Technology

I have argued above that we cannot prevent the Singularity, that its coming is an inevitable consequence of the humans' natural competitiveness and the possibilities inherent in technology. And yet … we are the initiators. Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things. We have the freedom to establish initial conditions, make things happen in ways that are less inimical than others. Of course (as with starting avalanches), it may not be clear what the right guiding nudge really is...

Much good beer has doubtless been made from very inferior malt, also vast quantities of so-called good beer are made by men who never even saw a proper mash; but neither of these facts can upset or affect the assertion that it is necessary to pay strict and careful attention to the drying of malt to produce a wort of uniform quality and absolute soundness. By careful working, inferior barley can be made into fairly sound and useful malt. By the employment of considerable skill... a brewer can make very good beer from indifferent malt, but his efforts, if carried back to the malt-house, are much more certain and reliable in their effects.
No brewer needs to be told how much easier is his work, and more certain in its results, if he has malt well made and soundly dried.

It is the constant attempt in this country [Canada] to make fundamental science responsive to the marketplace. Because technology needs science, it is tempting to require that scientific projects be justified in terms of the worth of the technology they can be expected to generate. The effect of applying this criterion is, however, to restrict science to developed fields where the links to technology are most evident. By continually looking for a short-term payoff we disqualify the sort of science that … attempts to answer fundamental questions, and, having answered them, suggests fundamentally new approaches in the realm of applications.