"They Promised Me Mars Colonies, Instead, I got Facebook" - Buzz Aldrin

[Toma]

http://www.technologyreview.com/feat...-big-problems/



The failure of technology? Venture Capitalism?

[ianmcc]

Interesting read for sure-in particular this passage interested me:

"President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971; but we soon discovered there were many kinds of cancer, most of them fiendishly resistant to treatment, and it is only in the last decade, as we have begun to sequence the genomes of different cancers and to understand how their mutations express themselves in different patients, that effective, targeted therapies have come to seem viable. ...Or consider the "dementia plague," as Stephen S. Hall has. As the populations of the industrialized nations age, it is emerging as the world's most pressing health problem: by 2050, palliative care in the United States alone will cost $1 trillion a year. Yet we understand almost nothing about dementia and have no effective treatments. Hard problems are hard."

My theory is that the reason for cancer being such a bitch is that we humans have an expiry date. We aren't supposed to live forever, And, to wit, further in the same passage the comment on the cost of palliative care is a by-product of trying to do so.

[LollerBrader]

Facebook costs a drop in the bucket what the last 30 years of senseless warfare have.

We pined for "free energy", at the same time as we pumped most of the virtually free energy out of the ground and squandered it upon wars to obtain more virtually free energy.

The furture has now arrived, with the energy being far less free than what we had before, and we have nothing to show for it.

Additionally, we're now pretty well stuck on this planetary single point of failure, steeping in our own poisons until some asteroid finishes the job.

The truth is that humans are only good at two things: fighting with other humans, or idly amusing themselves with baubles.

What a pathetic exercise in evolutionary failure.

[LollerBrader]

Originally posted by ianmcc



My theory is that the reason for cancer being such a bitch is that we humans have an expiry date. We aren't supposed to live forever, And, to wit, further in the same passage the comment on the cost of palliative care is a by-product of trying to do so.

I always thought this was an interesting metaphor on cell division, another form of lossy duplication:

http://www.danielbejar.com/Visual_To...ation_Gap.html

[ZenOps]

You could always just blame Nixon.

In destroying worlwide trade and "communal" technology and research, he basically destroyed innovation and the strive to compete. That he was the biggest crook of all time, is almost secondary. That he destroyed the purest form of capitalism (Nixon Shock, and the death of the gold standard) is also almost a side issue.

Aerospace has been regressing at a horrendous pace. I did not expect the Concorde to be cancelled, if anything - I was thinking they would have replaced it with a superior aircraft by now.

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by LollerBrader
Facebook costs a drop in the bucket what the last 30 years of senseless warfare have.

The way you worded that is exactly what is wrong IMO. Facebook should not "cost" anything. If it has real strong benefit to the population, people would be lining up for 10 blocks to throw money at facebook.

As is now, people line up 10 blocks to buy gasoline, to put in a jerrycan, on foot...

[bitteeinbit]

Originally posted by ZenOps
You could always just blame Nixon.

In destroying worlwide trade and "communal" technology and research, he basically destroyed innovation and the strive to compete. That he was the biggest crook of all time, is almost secondary. That he destroyed the purest form of capitalism (Nixon Shock, and the death of the gold standard) is also almost a side issue.

Aerospace has been regressing at a horrendous pace. I did not expect the Concorde to be cancelled, if anything - I was thinking they would have replaced it with a superior aircraft by now.

I believe at the height of the Space Race the US spent something like 2-3% of GDP on NASA and other forms of research and development. Now the budget is 1/16th of 1% (might be less by now). So obviously with all these governments competing against each other (ww2, space race), we managed to accomplish great feats in a very short period of time. But then you've all heard the story of how people quickly became more interested in the World Series and other mundane shit. When money is poured into something results are usually achieved... I think the same is true for cancer/HIV and other such "problems".

[ZenOps]

Well... It *IS* a democracy.

If people want 24/7 access to porn, that is what they get (and arguably, thats what people got) People don't want to spend their money to get a man to mars, they want a 100" HDTV instead of a 55".

In many ways, the current system is working just fine - depending on viewpoint.

[BigMass]

Originally posted by ZenOps

In many ways, the current system is working just fine - depending on viewpoint.

Humans get what they deserve

[Maybelater]

An unhappy populace isn't very productive. Why do you think Soviet Central planning failed? They couldn't keep people happy by forgoing consumer goods.

I guess capitalism is the other extreme at times though too, where we produce massive amounts of useless goods.

[bitteeinbit]

Originally posted by Maybelater
An unhappy populace isn't very productive. Why do you think Soviet Central planning failed? They couldn't keep people happy by forgoing consumer goods.

I guess capitalism is the other extreme at times though too, where we produce massive amounts of useless goods.

LOL that's not why the Russian-based socialist experiment failed.

[LollerBrader]

Originally posted by ZenOps
[B]

The way you worded that is exactly what is wrong IMO. Facebook should not "cost" anything.

You are thinking in terms of consumer cost. I am referring to the cost to society.

Of course facebook has a "cost". It costs resources, effort, manpower. As does a war: Cold war, or eternal war.

Whether or not the accounting books balance has no bearing on the cumulative redirection of resources required to make it happen.

[alloroc]

Don't half the people who posted in this thread think that the moon landing was a hoax?

Why would they listen to Buzz?