Barring a major war, world requirements for such 
basics as water, food, housing, and energy can be 
estimated reasonably well to the year 2000. 
However, it is difficult to make long-range 
projections of such qualitative factors as consumer 
tastes, political and legal arrangements and eco- 
nomic progress. It is essentially today’s technology 
that will be employed to meet such requirements 
during the next 10 years. Beyond that period 
planning becomes more difficult because of the 
unpredictability of technological advancements, 
especially real breakthroughs. Yet, when national 
interests have dictated the need for both adequate 
funding and high priority emphasis, solutions to 
difficult technological problems have been more 
rapid than most conceptual planners visualized. 
Technology can provide a better way of life. A 
higher standard of living for a doubled world 
population in the year 2000 will require more than 
twice the power, fresh water, and raw materials 
consumed today. The material demands of higher 
living standards are vividly illustrated by the fact 
that the United States with five per cent of the 
world’s population consumes almost half the 
power and raw materials produced by the entire 
world. So that the United States cannot be 
accused of taking a disproportionate share of 
world resources, it is prudent to encourage devel- 
opment of technology for new offshore petro- 
leum, mineral, food, and other resources, in effect 
greatly expanding the world resource base. 
For the near term, national security will be the 
most compelling influence forcing advancement of 
marine technology. However, offshore petroleum 
expenditures are growing more rapidly than de- 
fense expenditures. A large portion of the effort 
will have both civilian and military application, 
suggesting a need for strong cooperation between 
the two. 
The quest for wealth and profit will help 
advance marine technology. Advanced technology 
will provide the key to more economic utilization 
of the undersea environment. Such assets of the 
sea as buoyancy, sound transmission, and a limit- 
less heat sink will influence technological develop- 
ment. 
Technology development has allowed concur- 
rent achievement of a shorter work week and a 
higher standard of living. As this trend continues, 
Americans will earn higher disposable incomes and 
more leisure time. These will accelerate the need 
for additional coastal recreation areas. 
Impairment of activities by pollution will be- 
come more obvious and will motivate increased 
programs of abatement, enforcement, and restora- 
tion. Pollution, like inflation, goes relatively un- 
heeded for a time but has enormous long term 
implications. Before the end of the century, a 
significant amount of national energy must be 
directed to protecting and enhancing the environ- 
ment. 
Technological knowhow incorporated in most 
U.S. products gives the United States a great 
advantage in the world market. To retain this 
advantage the United States must commit itself to 
the development of the technology needed to 
open the undersea frontier as a new source of 
products and materials. 
IV. INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG PARTIC- 
ULAR SEGMENTS 
Technology development must be accomplished 
in a realistic environment subject to economic, 
social, political, scientific, international, and mili- 
tary pressures. Decisions on program activity 
should be preceded by objective discussions care- 
fully weighing technical and policy features. Im- 
portant areas of interrelationship have been iden- 
tified among economic segments: (1) government - 
industry - academic, (2) civilian - military, and (3) 
relationships among nations. 
A. Government—Industry—Academic 
Government’s traditional role in industrial de- 
velopment has been to provide protection for 
business investments and information of a scien- 
tific or technical nature. The State Department, 
Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, Depart- 
ment of the Interior, and the U.S. Patent Office 
provide protection for marine industries in many 
forms: physical survey data pertinent to mineral 
deposits, general environmental information, and 
statistical data. 
Protection of business investments is of particu- 
lar concern to those industries interested in ex- 
ploiting the continental shelves. Because explora- 
tion and survey information must precede 
exploitation of the shelves, broad surveys of the 
