MTR 100When it comes to inspiring innovationMarks the Spot‘X’The XPrize is seeking to in-centivize innovation to spur a new era of ocean discov-ery, as Jyotika I. Virmani, Ph.D. explains.We are living in an age of rapid inno-vation. Over the past 150,000 years we have evolved primarily in a local and linear world where most of our activities happened within a day’s walk. Life was relatively constant, millennium to mil-lennium. The Industrial Revolution and the advent of the Steam Engine saw a shift from this predominantly arable and local lifestyle, to an era of global explo-ration. But approximately 70% of the world still remained out of reach. The ocean, with its harsh, opaque saltwater, eluded the rapid pace of exploration and dis-covery we saw on land. But today, this is changing, and it is changing at an in-creasingly rapid pace.Our world is not linear and local any-more, it is exponential and global. The power and capabilities we have with the technology that we use is doubling ev-ery year. For example, in the 1950s, our data storage capability was 5 MB at a cost of $120,000. In 2005, 128 MB cost $99. Today, we can purchase 128 GB for $40, with Terabyte storage capacity becoming the new norm. Today’s aver-age low end computer calculates at a rate of 1011 calculations per second – about Image: XPrizeJuly/August 201638 MTRMTR #6 (34-49).indd 38 7/22/2016 11:56:05 AM