Americans had a talent for innovation even before we had a country. In 1776, the idea that a nation should be run entirely by leaders elected by the people was revolutionary.

Today, we don’t usually think of the Founding Fathers as innovators the way, say, Thomas Edison was, but that’s what they were. They imagined something that no one had thought of before, and then they made it a reality.

This is the country that invented the cotton gin, the airplane, and the polio vaccine. But innovation is more than what America does; it is part of what America is. The reason we won the space race is not that we are smarter or harder-working than anyone else. It is because we had an innovation ecosystem ready to go into high gear when President Kennedy challenged us to get to the moon and back.

NASA contractors could make rapid technical advances because the government had been investing in basic research like physics, computer science, and materials science. We had great public schools where a generation of students learned the skills that would create the next wave of inventions. We had world-class universities and welcomed talented people from everywhere.

I was 13 years old when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon, too young to take part myself. But I’ve been lucky enough to be part of more recent dramatic changes driven by innovation.

One is the digital revolution, starting with the creation of the personal computer and the software that would run it. When Paul Allen and I founded Microsoft, we were able to draw on talent from great universities and an ecosystem that made it possible to challenge entrenched competitors. It was a huge benefit to us to be in the U.S.

Another revolution is the one taking places in energy; it’s leading to new sources that are cleaner, better, and cheaper than what we have today. And there is the global health revolution, which has seen the invention of new vaccines, new ways to distribute them, and lifesaving treatments for deadly diseases like AIDS. Since 2000, health innovations have cut the number of children who die every year from 10 million to fewer than 5 million.

Of course, innovation can be a double-edged sword. Artificial intelligence can improve education, but it can also eliminate jobs and spread misinformation. Advances in biology make it easier for scientists to create new vaccines, but also for bad actors to create new bioweapons. We need clearer norms and regulations, and more investment in safeguards.

Unfortunately, America’s innovation ecosystem is not what it used to be. Federal funding for research is a smaller share of the economy than it was during the space race; recently there have been proposals to cut NIH funding by 40 percent. We’re not putting as much money into higher education as we used to. And other countries are now competing for the most talented people.

I hope America gets back to the things that made us uniquely inventive. It improves lives, and it brings us together. Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike were thrilled to see Artemis II take off, carry its crew farther into space than any human had ever been, and bring them safely back to Earth.

On our 250th birthday, let’s take a moment to appreciate what our system of innovation has done for America and the world. If the next 250 years are going to be as good for humanity as the last 250—and I believe they can be—we can’t take it for granted. We should rebuild and reinvest in it.