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The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

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Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#2
> The semiconductor industry has always had this quality: the difference between a pioneer and a founder is often just access to materials, capital, and time.

This applies not just to the semiconductor industry but almost every industry, especially the ones that don't exist yet.

And to this list I would add: a social and economic system that provides a fertile ground for research, experimentation, immigration and entrepreneurship.

While the US has built up such advantages over the years that they can't all be lost in a manic overnight tweet storm, it's sad and a bit scary to see the current environment, which is much more hostile to all of these things.

Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#3

> The semiconductor industry has always had this quality: the difference between a pioneer and a founder is often just access to materials, capital, and time. This applies not just to the semiconductor industry but almost every industry, especially the ones that don't exist yet. And to this list I would add: a social and economic system that provides a fertile ground for research, experimentation, immigration and ent…

Who provides such an economic system?

Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#4
post #3

> The semiconductor industry has always had this quality: the difference between a pioneer and a founder is often just access to materials, capital, and time. This applies not just to the semiconductor industry but almost every industry, especially the ones that don't exist yet. And to this list I would add: a social and economic system that provides a fertile ground for research, experimentation, immigration and ent…

Who provides such an economic system?

The US, although much less so recently.

China, with heavy state subsidies, has also proven to be pretty effective. Interestingly, it hasn't had to embrace immigration because it has over a billion people.

Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who provides such an economic system?

The US, although much less so recently. China, with heavy state subsidies, has also proven to be pretty effective. Interestingly, it hasn't had to embrace immigration because it has over a billion people.

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Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#8
Thus is the crime of the communist Russia: forcing millions into hard labor to die for progress yet squandering innovation for ideological reasons. But the same mechanism is there in, say, Microsoft. To get the attention of leadership, your idea must have 9 zeros at the very least. If it doesn’t, you either leave M$ or stay there and abandon your idea. But a 7-zero idea is a pretty expensive one to be abandoned.

Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#9
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who provides such an economic system?

The US, although much less so recently. China, with heavy state subsidies, has also proven to be pretty effective. Interestingly, it hasn't had to embrace immigration because it has over a billion people.

Do Chinas state subsidies encourage innovation?

This story is a great example of the system taking a brilliant person, and stomping their opportunity down because they were from the wrong class. But replace class with whatever you like.

Re: The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

#10
post #8

Thus is the crime of the communist Russia: forcing millions into hard labor to die for progress yet squandering innovation for ideological reasons. But the same mechanism is there in, say, Microsoft. To get the attention of leadership, your idea must have 9 zeros at the very least. If it doesn’t, you either leave M$ or stay there and abandon your idea. But a 7-zero idea is a pretty expensive one to be abandoned.

I don’t think Microsoft is sending people to the gulag because they didn’t have enough zeroes behind their idea.
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