Two curves that republicans can not understand . . .
- The technology capability curve is mostly EXPONENTIALLY up and to the right and there is NOTHING any political leader can do to even bend the curve down a little, let alone stop the progress. This is what has so many people in the flyover states so filled with fear - they are no longer employable. While the USA coasts try to be on the PROFITABLE bleeding edge in competition with humans with equal brains all over the world, the "flyover" Luddites are trying to stop everything because they consider everything that is being done on the USA coasts (and in Asia and Europe) as "black magic."
- The technology cost curve is more linear, but is down and to the right (decreasing costs). The two big drivers on the coasts are increasing capability and lower costs because both drive profitability. Do you need a fully functional 64-bit 1 GHz computer to accomplish some task (for example, replacing a human) You can get a quad core one from the Raspberry Pi Foundation for US$35. This computer can do EVERYTHING your desktop/server could do less than five years ago.
While humans on earth need lots of energy to live decent lives, the technology leaders are very rapidly figuring out ways to provide that energy by harvesting energy from the sun and the earth in human usable forms at costs that are approaching zero.
By focusing on "protecting" the old sources of energy (hydrocarbon) instead of investing every penny in new forms of energy, the USA is ensuring that there will be no viable USA energy sector within a decade because by the time the USA invests, the other countries on earth will be so far ahead of the USA, the USA companies will not be able to catch up, let alone compete.
One of the lessons I learned by doing start-ups inside a big company was that the sooner our group made another group obsolete, the better it would be for all of us (the company just had the folks from the dead product groups start inventing new stuff). Note that if my group didn't "kill" the older groups, then competitors outside our company would.
If Americans were half way smart, they would tax the hydrocarbon producers as much as possible and use the money to fund start-ups with promising futures.
But . . .
NO group of humans will ever willingly give up power and wealth - they will fight to the bitter end.
Two curves that republicans can not understand . . .
- The technology capability curve is mostly EXPONENTIALLY up and to the right and there is NOTHING any political leader can do to even bend the curve down a little, let alone stop the progress. This is what has so many people in the flyover states so filled with fear - they are no longer employable. While the USA coasts try to be on the PROFITABLE bleeding edge in competition with humans with equal brains all over the world, the "flyover" Luddites are trying to stop everything because they consider everything that is being done on the USA coasts (and in Asia and Europe) as "black magic."
- The technology cost curve is more linear, but is down and to the right (decreasing costs). The two big drivers on the coasts are increasing capability and lower costs because both drive profitability. Do you need a fully functional 64-bit 1 GHz computer to accomplish some task (for example, replacing a human) You can get a quad core one from the Raspberry Pi Foundation for US$35. This computer can do EVERYTHING your desktop/server could do less than five years ago.
While humans on earth need lots of energy to live decent lives, the technology leaders are very rapidly figuring out ways to provide that energy by harvesting energy from the sun and the earth in human usable forms at costs that are approaching zero.
By focusing on "protecting" the old sources of energy (hydrocarbon) instead of investing every penny in new forms of energy, the USA is ensuring that there will be no viable USA energy sector within a decade because by the time the USA invests, the other countries on earth will be so far ahead of the USA, the USA companies will not be able to catch up, let alone compete.
One of the lessons I learned by doing start-ups inside a big company was that the sooner our group made another group obsolete, the better it would be for all of us (the company just had the folks from the dead product groups start inventing new stuff). Note that if my group didn't "kill" the older groups, then competitors outside our company would.
If Americans were half way smart, they would tax the hydrocarbon producers as much as possible and use the money to fund start-ups with promising futures.
But . . .
NO group of humans will ever willingly give up power and wealth - they will fight to the bitter end.