How hard is your problem?
brianlash: I think most technical folks' occupancy of your latter two problem sets isn't so much for lack of interest in new, hairy-scary problems.  It's for want of the necessary tools to do so.On the flip side, it's my guess a lot of hackers consider themselves new-problem-solvers-in-training.  A 22 year old computer guy may not be solving the clean water and efficient energy problems of the world, but could conceivably have aspirations to do so when his or her talent is matched with the right street savvy, is matched with the right entrepreneurial network, is matched with the right funding opportunities, and so on.  So in a lot of cases it's a question of "when," not "whether."And if it's people breaking new ground in computer work you're after, you've got to make sure you're in the right ballpark; Plenty of universities are doing remarkable things in CS, but again, it's usually older entrepreneurs (with money and know-how) who get their hands on new tech through the technology commercialization centers.Which is to say that new problems are being solved (in CS, too), just in different territories and in different ways than we hear about in mainstream tech news.