If Obama Is Interested, Silicon Valley Might Be His Calling

US President Barack Obama had listed science as one of the fields he’d like to pursue after presidency.

US President Barack Obama tries virtual reality glasses. (Photo: Reuters)

It is a matter of speculation if the “nerd” president of USA, Barack Obama will be interested in Silicon Valley after he leaves his tough job of eight years.

He is the first US president to initiate the White House science fair. He also created the position of United States chief technology officer on his first day in office.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Mr Obama had listed science as one of the fields he’d like to pursue after presidency.

But what I will say is that – just to bring things full circle about innovation – the conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organisation in a way I find really satisfying... That’s just an example of something I can sit and listen and talk to folks for hours about... You can become Bill Gates. Or, in some cases, you can electrify a village. You can save water in a desert. That’s the thing about the U.S. economy that continues to be unique. And it’s tied to capitalism and markets, but it’s also tied to a faith in science and reason and a mindset that says there’s always something new to discover, and we don’t know everything, and we’re going to try new things, and we’re pragmatic.

US President Barack Obama looks at the moon through a telescope during the second White House Astronomy Night on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (Photo: Reuters)

Obama is quite obviously a fan of Star Trek and has mentioned growing up reading Spider Man. His reading list included sci-fi books such as Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem, the New York Times reported.

Although White House aides declined to comment on the issue, he has quite a few donors and aides from Silicon Valley.

Phil Larson who was Obama’s advisor at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, now works at SpaceX.

The NYT quoted Larson as saying that the president “loves sitting back and having scientists say magical things about the future.”

(Source: New York Times, Bloomberg)