New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies • Hacker News Board

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#211

Post by comatose_kid » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 10:53 PM UTC

FD3SA wrote: post #210

comatose_kid wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wozniak's genius might never have been exposed to the broader world had he not paired with a Steve Jobs.

Precisely. It seems to me insane that there are Wozniaks out there who are undiscovered. We shouldn't need to depend on a Jobs to find an introverted genius. Woz could have done wonders at a Bell Labs or equivalent. He was successful regardless due to his interests being aligned with the growing microcomputer industry at the time, but he would not have been as lucky had he been born in another era. My point is that w…

Okay, thanks for the clarification. Definitely agree that research institutions have an important role (alongside VCs) in fostering innovation.

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#212

Post by adwn » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 4:58 AM UTC

chriswarbo wrote: post #192

Houshalter wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the purpose of the tower? It seems like an incredible waste of resources.

The purpose is mainly the idea. If such a tower were built, it would indeed be a huge waste of natural resources; but it would improve our engineering abilities.

Improve our ability to build useless, wasteful towers? No, thanks.

I'm pretty sure we can improve our engineering abilities in much more constructive, useful ways.

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#213

Post by nakedrobot2 » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 9:22 AM UTC

Houshalter wrote: post #174

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #25

I hope someone is crazy enough for the Tall Tower project. It is the kind of project the Human Race needs to convince ourselves that we are still capable of getting Big Things done. If you don't know about it already, it is a project jump-started in part by Neal Stephenson, to build a 15km tall tower. http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/project/the-tall-tower/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE0n_5qPmRM

What's the purpose of the tower? It seems like an incredible waste of resources.

It will reduce the cost of rocket launches by 50% (or double the payload).

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#214

Post by rguzman » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 1:51 PM UTC

carpdiem wrote: post #164

pg wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By not starting with spaceships, but instead with something that can evolve into spaceships. Here's the first product of Boeing, which built the bottom stage of the Saturn V: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/history/boeing/bw.page

I feel like this is not a good comparison. Boeing took fifty years to go from the company that built that plane, to the company that helped build the Saturn V. I'm all for long time horizons, but I don't think that most startup founders envision spending fifty years on a company in order to finally, at the end of that, get to do what they wanted to do in the first place.

for anyone who is both willing and able to do one of these 'breakout technology' companies, the company is what they want to do in the first place.

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#215

Post by Houshalter » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 3:37 PM UTC

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #213

Houshalter wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the purpose of the tower? It seems like an incredible waste of resources.

It will reduce the cost of rocket launches by 50% (or double the payload).

But the net cost is higher because of all the money spent on building the tower. Why not just launch from the top of a mountain? Or build the tower on top of a mountain?

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#216

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 22, 2014, 11:44 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #209

jonlemmon wrote: post #67

"We're interested in ways to use the Internet to fix government" That's what Loomio is doing: http://boingboing.net/2014/03/19/loomio-democratic-decision-... Building infrastructure for citizens to self-govern. Using the internet to enable large-scale decision-making, without the need of large government.

Yes! This is heading in the right direction! Whereas, sadly, i was shaking my head at some of this list. How could any person with the faintest clue write both these things: > Healthcare. Healthcare in the United States is badly broken. > Education. If we can fix education, we can eventually do everything else on this list Healthcare in the United States is badly broken because your system of government is a complete…

[deleted]

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#217

Post by namenotrequired » Sat, Mar 22, 2014, 11:45 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #209

jonlemmon wrote: post #67

"We're interested in ways to use the Internet to fix government" That's what Loomio is doing: http://boingboing.net/2014/03/19/loomio-democratic-decision-... Building infrastructure for citizens to self-govern. Using the internet to enable large-scale decision-making, without the need of large government.

Yes! This is heading in the right direction! Whereas, sadly, i was shaking my head at some of this list. How could any person with the faintest clue write both these things: > Healthcare. Healthcare in the United States is badly broken. > Education. If we can fix education, we can eventually do everything else on this list Healthcare in the United States is badly broken because your system of government is a complete…

"the faintest clue"? "a different opinion" is probably closer to the truth.

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#218

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 22, 2014, 11:45 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #209

jonlemmon wrote: post #67

"We're interested in ways to use the Internet to fix government" That's what Loomio is doing: http://boingboing.net/2014/03/19/loomio-democratic-decision-... Building infrastructure for citizens to self-govern. Using the internet to enable large-scale decision-making, without the need of large government.

Yes! This is heading in the right direction! Whereas, sadly, i was shaking my head at some of this list. How could any person with the faintest clue write both these things: > Healthcare. Healthcare in the United States is badly broken. > Education. If we can fix education, we can eventually do everything else on this list Healthcare in the United States is badly broken because your system of government is a complete…

[deleted]

Re: New RFS – Breakthrough Technologies

#219

Post by ThePhysicist » Tue, Mar 25, 2014, 2:57 PM UTC

irollboozers wrote: post #199

ThePhysicist wrote: post #52

"Science. Science seems broken. The current funding models are broken and favor political skill over scientific genius. We need new business models for basic research. There are a lot of areas where scientific developments can have huge commercial applications — materials, neuroscience, climate engineering, and cheaper/better ways to get to space, just to name a few—and we’d love to figure out a way for it to happen.…

Check out Experiment ( http://experiment.com ). Even in 'research', there are different types and different motivations. I believe the Science that we see today is more a reflection of the past decades' focus on commercial innovation. As opposed to the previous few centuries, where science was the product of exploration and curiosity. How we do science today will not be the same as how we do science in 10 years.

Well that's an interesting website, but honestly I think it's not possible to fund fundamental research using crowdsourcing: For example, the last group I worked in consisted of about 6 full-time researchers, 4 PhD students and about 3-6 master students / interns. The salary and infrastructure costs there probably already amount to more than 1 M$ / year. In addition, expenditures for electricity and other required materials (in our case liquid helium) amount again to several 100k$ / year. And this is just what keeps the lights on, doing actual research projects typically requires again several million dollars per project over the course of 3-5 years. To raise that amount of money through crowdsourcing seems very unrealistic and would put the scientists at the "mercy of the masses", so with all due respect I think it's not a viable idea.

There could be other interesting use cases for this kind of platform of course: I think in research education this could be a great tool to collect money for student projects at schools and universities, which in the long term will benefit science a lot by producing more scientists :) I just think that funding professional, institutionalized research is and should stay the job of the government.