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Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

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Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of cultural unity thing is a curtain to hide behind. There's no reason Europe can't have a powerful federal government, other than it would result in transfers from the "export based economies" to the others.

> There's no reason Europe can't have a powerful federal government Europe does not share a language in common, a culture in common, not even a currency in common. The "federal government" idea would be rejected by many out of hand. The history of bitter wars between European countries has not simply been forgotten and many would feel it encroaches on their sovereignty. Just look at the reaction to mild proposals for…

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Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#402
post #195

Tangential, since this article is about the US and China. But if the US has dropped the ball, then Europe (or the EU specifically) didn't even bother to go to the game. The only thing we're innovative at is coming up with regulations. And I say this as someone who thinks the US tech sector should be under much heavier regulatory scrutiny.

Since you mention regulation, I think it is something to be proud of. GDPR, Germany saying hell-no to forced Facebook accounts, etc. As for innovation? US isn't even top 10 when it comes to Nobel prize per capita ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Nobel_l... ). IKEA, SAP, Beretta, Airbus, Spotify, Linux, Prometheus, Grafana, Booking.com just from the top of my head of things that are proof of Euro…

Per capita statistics are heavily biased towards smaller countries. There are not enough Nobel prize a in history for any large country to have as many Nobel prize as the Faroe islands does.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#404
post #400

Late to this thread, sorry. I have two tangental questions. #1 In general terms, what's China's commitment (investment) in higher ed? Compared to the USA and other economies? USA's tuition, loans, student debt is always good for an argument on HN. Almost no one mentions that the USA decided to privatize higher ed some decades back. So I was wondering if China and others made the same mistake. #2 How does current Chin…

The problem with making higher ed only a public service is you run into rationing. If all positions have to be government funded there tends to be fewer positions. There are plenty of people on HN who likely would not have made the cut in a EU country.

Supply in the USA hasn't kept pace with demand.

How would you remedy that?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#405
post #361
post #350

Anyone else find it ironic that Google is the subject of one of the biggest anti-trust cases in recent history, and now Schmidt is blaming the US for not innovating enough? Maybe if so much of the tech industry's wealth and resources weren't pooled together into a handful of massive monopolists who have nearly complete control over whether any competitor lives or dies, the US (and really, the entire world) would have…

That may be true but it does not address the kinds of large-scale, national policy issues Schmidt is talking about. We have lost our way in technology strategy. Instead of welcoming foreign students we chase them away. Instead of integrating tech markets globally to extend our soft power, we practice knee jerk techno-nationalism. It is not even done competently. The "advisors" pushing these policies are known for bei…

The trend against immigration was caused by a combination of unchecked illegal immigration causing economic and cultural pressure against the lower class combined with nearly unchecked immigration causing pressure on the middle class(see H1B exploitation by Disney, tech contracting companies, etc). Fix these issues, and you will fix much of the disdain towards immigrants shown by modern-day Plebs.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#406
post #350

Anyone else find it ironic that Google is the subject of one of the biggest anti-trust cases in recent history, and now Schmidt is blaming the US for not innovating enough? Maybe if so much of the tech industry's wealth and resources weren't pooled together into a handful of massive monopolists who have nearly complete control over whether any competitor lives or dies, the US (and really, the entire world) would have…

Just look at tensorflow. It masquerades as enabling open source ai, while really pushing people to pricey, proprietary google cloud compute. How these ppl can keep a straight face, I have no idea.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#407
post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Microsoft do a lot of interesting research. Waymo is a good example. I'm not sure what Apple does. My issue with big tech is not lack of innovation or research, but rather that it's all private. We're driving people out orgs that share their research with the world and into ones that lock it away.

I think Apples research is seeing what happens when you sit on a quarter of a trillion dollars. Without veering far off topic. I don't think apple really has a culture of innovation anymore. Each rectangle looks the same. Remember when nokia had all their crazy feature phones. Taking a 30% cut on apps isn't that.

Counterpoint - A Series Chips. And now MacBooks on Apple Silicon

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#408
> And that's one of the key reasons why China has been able to catch up... he thinks the US is still ahead of China in tech innovation, for now. But that the gap is narrowing fast.

Which is awesome.

Because framing it as "ahead" or a "gap" is completely backwards. Innovation isn't a competition or zero-sum game.

Innovation coming out of China benefits the world, just like innovation coming out of the US does. What matters is the total.

How about we be thankful that there are now so many more scientists the world over contributing to research and knowledge? How amazing is that for the human race?

Now, if there's an article that actually proves US innovation is slowing compared to itself in the past somehow, that actually measures total results rather than government-funded inputs (e.g. including private funding and taking impact/effectiveness into account, not just # of papers published)... then I'd be very interested in that.

But this article isn't that. This article is just cheap nationalism. Ugh.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#409
post #350

Anyone else find it ironic that Google is the subject of one of the biggest anti-trust cases in recent history, and now Schmidt is blaming the US for not innovating enough? Maybe if so much of the tech industry's wealth and resources weren't pooled together into a handful of massive monopolists who have nearly complete control over whether any competitor lives or dies, the US (and really, the entire world) would have…

Google definitely could of created a research laboratory. Wasnt it not long ago that companies would invest a lot more money on research? That was why we got so many impressive projects out of Bell Labs and I am sure other companies. Its a shame that horse race ended. Whats worse is Google wants all their software to be as intangible as possible by forcing it all on their servers. Google hasnt had many desktop apps y…

> could of

I am not a grammar nazi. I am not even a fucking native English speaker, but what the fuck??? Why is this mistake so prevalent these days?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#410
post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true but it does not address the kinds of large-scale, national policy issues Schmidt is talking about. We have lost our way in technology strategy. Instead of welcoming foreign students we chase them away. Instead of integrating tech markets globally to extend our soft power, we practice knee jerk techno-nationalism. It is not even done competently. The "advisors" pushing these policies are known for bei…

Beyond this blip in politics I dont see how any of your arguments has any foothold. And again you're blaming Intel for not being a monopoly.

I'm not blaming Intel "for being a monopoly." If anything, I am blaming Intel for letting a dominant position that benefited the US slip away.
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