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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

#521

Post by rstuart4133 »

vidar wrote: post #246
gumby wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is for example no way a swedish mapping company could have competed with google maps Not Swedish, but Danish founders, working in Australia. Google purchased the company and made it google maps

That does not mean it would have succeeded without the Google acquisition

https://www.nearmap.com/ was another one that google looked at, before buying the other mob that became maps.google.com. They are also Australian.

It depends what you mean by successful I guess, but nearmap fits my definition of successful. Far better more and detailed maps that google, sold to people who needs such things rather than being used as platform to sell advertising.

In the beginning they used to have an honour system that allowed everyone to view their maps for free. They merely requested people who used it commercially to to purchase access. I gather that didn't work out, or maybe it was just a way of ensuring everybody knew about their product as there is no free access now. but while it was free it was great for checking when roof gutters needed cleaning, comparing flood levels and that sort of thing.

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

#522

Post by TaylorAlexander »

catherd wrote: post #68
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say "America will win"? What do you mean win? Open source hardware is really good at making things low cost, because whoever can offer the best value (low cost, reasonably quality) will succeed. So what if we did that with big stuff like MRI machines and semiconductor fabricating equipment and robotics? Wouldn't that make all that stuff cheap, thereby making us better off?…

Open source hardware is also really good at allowing whoever can produce something cheapest to capture all the profits. Unless the designers are careful about controlling the results of their labor they won't be the ones "thriving", or even benefiting. It only works in certain niches where the technical aspects of production or market naturally exclude most other manufacturers. Or what about designers who don't neces…

I guess I am asking a systems question. I am asking if it is worth researching what a more open or fully open economy would do for the overall rate of innovation.

If we found that it was better to be more open, we could find a way to slowly transition to a more open economy. After transition, you would know someone else may duplicate your work, and you would invest appropriately. You might invest less but you would also benefit more directly from everyone else's investment, so it is non obvious if you would be better or worse off.

"Open source hardware is also really good at allowing whoever can produce something cheapest to capture all the profits."

Please name specific companies to back up this claim. Open hardware companies that succeed despite clones are Arduino, Prusa Research, Sparkfun, Adafruit...

Certainly the rules would be different in an open economy, and so we would have to transition with care. But I think there is a chance that an open economy would have a higher rate of overall innovation. If that were true, the implications for humanity would be staggering. We can duplicate information for free, and so we can duplicate some forms of value for free. But I have never seen an economic theory that leverages this obvious feature of computerized information to produce more value.

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

#523

Post by dang »

soc14lism00 wrote: post #465
austinheap wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an alternative system you’re a fan of?

Username says it all Ultimately, not acquiescing to social narratives alone is all I’m advocating for. Narratives like society should avoid limits on the amount social capital we award people (money isn’t a thing outside human societies, having a lot of it isn’t scientific evidence of exceptionalism) on giant promises like forever life, nuclear cars, living on Mars, and whatever Google believes it’ll find sorting all…

Special purpose accounts and, especially, using HN primarily for ideological battle, are not allowed here. That leads to repetitive, tedious discussions, and usually flamewars.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#524

Post by kps »

Zigurd wrote: post #364
koyote wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your phone's CPU was designed in the UK! (alas Arm are now owned by a Japanese company)

Actually it originated in a joint venture of Apple, VLSI Technology, and Acorn.

That's the company ARM. The processor had been developed five years previously by Acorn.

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

#525

Post by someguydave »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #163
sorval wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats just utterly untrue and the reverse of whats actually true. "states that were coded as blue based upon results from the 2004 presidential election were significantly higher in education funding than were states coded as red. Students in blue states scored significantly higher on outcome measures of math and reading in grades four and eight than did students in red states." https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED5…

That’s the most facile thing I’ve ever read. Did it control for cost of living? Did it control for demographics? In 2019, and I’m using this because you can explore it at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/states/groups?... , Mississippi’s 8th grade math mean score was the same as New Hampshire’s, when comparing white students. Mississippi is just way less white than New Hampshire. California, also near th…

Yes, the whole puzzle becomes much simpler to think about when you consider the possibility that the school scores primarily reflect the quality of students admitted, and not the quality of the education administered.

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

#526

Post by p_l »

mytherin wrote: post #343
jeswin wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not monopolistic abuse; what you described is just investment in a new sector with profits from an existing one. Companies, investors and funds do it all the time. Abuse would be when a company leverages a monopoly to enter or influence another market, such as bundling Internet Explorer with Windows.

Perhaps monopoly abuse is not the right term, but Microsoft did buy their way into the gaming industry by selling millions of consoles at a loss. There is no way for any company that is not already a multi-billion dollar company to compete with that. The same happens in many other areas where large tech companies use their inertia and tons of existing capital to make it impossible for anyone but other tech giants to…

You might want to change your example, as while the tactic is reprehensible and common to VC-backed companies, selling consoles at loss is standard practice for I think all makers (they recoup it by license fees on games)

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

#527

Post by aww_dang »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #439
nine_zeros wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China and most Asian countries are ethonostates. In America, if you suggest that we should be an ethnostate you would not only be called a white supremecist, you'd likely lose your job. In fact, today to even suggest reducing immigration (like Trump) you get called a white supremecist. That is just a reality. Xenophobia has gradients and degrees: What I am talking about: The number one reason why the US was able to…

> You hold a very narrow view of multicultural societies No, I hold an accurate view of them. Differences matter and the difference between two Han Chinese is not the same difference between a White person and a Somali refugee no matter how much you pretend it is. America was not always a multi-cultural society. It was a society for the white man. This was explicitly stated by every president from George Washington t…

>Differences matter and the difference between two Han Chinese is not the same difference between a White person and a Somali refugee no matter how much you pretend it is.

As long as we can transact freely and respect private property, the culture wars are not as important as some would make them.

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

#529

Post by conductr »

petre wrote: post #126
conductr wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Need an unemployment check? Help build a bridge, road, dam, etc. In my mind it’s super simple. Money for labor. Problem is, most Americans would revolt if you asked them to break a sweat.

Not every unemployed person could operate a buldozer. What would you have them do, lay bricks? Train them to use heavy machinery after working in hospitality services? Germany does this with some amount of succes but I don't know how they do it. German socialism seems to work at the expense of a zero point growth figure. They still pay the solidarity tax for East Germany.

Yes I actually would do this. Why can’t they lay bricks? Would they rather starve? There would need to be some training component for several jobs (bulldozer driver) but I think there could be a job that’s right for most. This is pretty similar to what the military does I believe, you get a job based on aptitude and such.

I don’t know if it’s the perfect solution but it feels more appropriate than our current approach. I don’t know much about the German way, I just know we pay for idle bodies while we have a lot of infrastructure that needs rebuilding.

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

#530

Post by AlchemistCamp »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #266
AlchemistCamp wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is for example no way a Swedish mapping company could have competed with google maps An Israeli one did.

Waze was acquired by Google, am not sure that counts.

If Waze couldn't compete against an incumbent Google Maps, why would Google ever have bought it?
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