  I argue that there is a crisis in optical Astronomy due to a paucity of
telescopes and thus the need for a paradigm shift in telescope technology.
Large increases in collecting areas and observing time/astronomer are only
possible if we forgo the fully steerable multipurpose telescope with a glass
primary mirror that has dominated astronomical research. Only by adopting
entirely novel technologies that allow one to build large and inexpensive
telescopes can we achieve truly large improvements. This may come at the
expense of versatility and may entail changes in the observing strategies
astronomers are now accustomed to. I build my case around a new technology,
liquid mirrors, that although in its infancy has achieved credibility. I argue
that forthcoming technological improvements will make Liquid Mirror Telescopes
(LMTs) nearly as versatile as conventional telescopes. I address the issue of
the fields accessible to LMTs equipped with novel optical correctors. Optical
design work and exploratory laboratory work indicate that a single LMT should
be able to access, with excellent images, subregions anywhere inside fields as
large as 45 degrees.
  As a practical example of what an LMT can do with the present technology, I
examine the expected performance of a 5-m liquid mirror telescope, presently
under construction, dedicated to a cosmological survey. It is rather
impressive, due to the fact that the instrument works full-time on a four-year
survey: Spectrophotometry reaches B=24 with a signal to noise ratio of 10
within a 200\AA bandpass for all objects within 300 square degrees and
wide-band photometry reaches about B=27. I give three examples of cosmological
projects that can be done with the data.
