The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
1–10 of 223 posts
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#2"That's fine, that's capitalism - and these incremental improvements lead to slow productivity gains that at least quicken the pulse of economists. But maybe let's drop the pretense that we're curing cancer unless, you know, we're curing cancer."
Reasonable and astute point.
"An Economist article this year exploring the state of innovation noted that centuries of scientific progress means it takes ever longer for people to reach to the frontier of any field, much less push past it. It also stressed that much of the technological low-hanging fruit is long gone."
Also true, and oft-overlooked.
"Thiel is at least putting his money where his mouth is at Founders Fund, his venture capital firm making investments into robotics, artificial intelligence and biotechnology (alongside a lineup of dot-coms)."
Ironically, AI was jump-started by DOD dollars,[1] and biotechnology by NIH dollars. Robotics had substantial manufacturing implications and got money from that area, but has also benefited heavily from defense money (think UAV's, etc).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter#DARPA.27s_funding_cut...
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#3Evgeny Morozov wrote a must-read book review that deals with this bloviating mentality: http://bookforum.com/inprint/019_05/10825.
Can't wait to read his upcoming book on the subject.
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#4Author could have mentioned that Tesla and SpaceX received sizable government funding.
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#5Author could have mentioned that Tesla and SpaceX received sizable government funding.
[deleted]
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#6"That's fine, that's capitalism - and these incremental improvements lead to slow productivity gains that at least quicken the pulse of economists. But maybe let's drop the pretense that we're curing cancer unless, you know, we're curing cancer." Reasonable and astute point. "An Economist article this year exploring the state of innovation noted that centuries of scientific progress means it takes ever longer for peo…
The article makes that exact point:
> Only governments had the long view and available cash to fund things like supercolliders, deep space programs and - oh yeah - the development of the Internet.
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#7"Silicon Valley loves to talk big about innovation; it's just not as good at following through."
BS. Computing, Networking, Biotech, Internet, and more. Silicon Valley has delivered, and there is more to come.
Not every new investment is going to change the world. But collectively, the track record is very strong.
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#8Another thing: as companies get larger they will try to squeeze competitors, fire employees and do everything possible to increase their margins.
Legal, but they shouldn't brag about it.
Edited to add: Apple, Microsoft and Google alone have close to $250 Billion in the bank, $250,000,000,000 and what we hear each quarter about them? Increased margins, more and more ads, increased prices on software, anti-competitive behavior, essentially cheating on taxes, firing 20% of employees (Motorola) and holding cash overseas not to bring it to US due to taxes. It never ends, they have to be ready for the next quarter
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#9"Silicon Valley loves to talk big about innovation; it's just not as good at following through." BS. Computing, Networking, Biotech, Internet, and more. Silicon Valley has delivered, and there is more to come. Not every new investment is going to change the world. But collectively, the track record is very strong.
do you really believe those things were created in or by silicon valley?
Even beyond their public pasts, their early private champions like Bell Labs, BBN and IBM weren't from california nor private equity backed.
Re: The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
#10"That's fine, that's capitalism - and these incremental improvements lead to slow productivity gains that at least quicken the pulse of economists. But maybe let's drop the pretense that we're curing cancer unless, you know, we're curing cancer." Reasonable and astute point. "An Economist article this year exploring the state of innovation noted that centuries of scientific progress means it takes ever longer for peo…
The article makes that exact point: > Only governments had the long view and available cash to fund things like supercolliders, deep space programs and - oh yeah - the development of the Internet.
Thats not true. There was no long view government plan to create what we now call the Internet.