Text 870, 124 rader
Skriven 2004-10-22 20:53:36 av Adam Flinton (1:379/45)
     Kommentar till en text av Gary Wiltshire (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Article on WIPO & the public good
=============================================
From: Adam Flinton <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>

Gary Wiltshire wrote:
>>> Things which are inefficient and uneconomic, i.e. impractical, do
>>> not  survice in the commercial world.
>>>
>>
>> So travel by sea.
>
>
> Actually THAT'S an example of the uneconomic where the more recent
> technology, subsonic flight is better and chosen for the overwhelming
> majority of trans-Atlantic passenger traffic.
>

Because it's fast. The cheapest form of transport is still shipping.

>>
>> The reason SST'es have gone is that people did not want the sonic
>> boom  where they lived. Once it was over water only the number of
>> routes  dropped massively.
>
>
> That's not the only reason.  Enormous fuel consumption per passenger
> mile  is another, plus maintenance problems.  They never made economic
> sense.
>

Not so. Concorde made money but it could only run on a restricted set of
routes. It was taken out of use because the manufacturers did not want to keep
making the parts as the low number of concordes made the process uneconomic for
them.


>> Nah. Fine so electronic have improved. I mentioned that computing is
>> the  only area of progress. WRT a probe, the majority of the speed
>> required  comes from using the gravity of planets e.g. cassini went to
>> saturn via  venus, earth, & jupiter.
>
>
> Wrong about the speed.  To be able to use the slingshot effect, a
> spacecraft first has to be able to climb out of earth's gravity well,
> something Sputnik could not do.
>

Bigger chemical rocket. Gee whiz.

>> No major "World Wars" or civil wars in the major population centers
>> (e.g. China, India, Europe, North America).
>
>
> Also technological as I've pointed out many times before - namely nukes.
>

Which have been around since 1945.


>> Hurrah. Equally lots of people haven't been born due to medical
>> advances  (e.g. the pill) & that has saved many women form death in
>> childbirth.
>
>
> Tou're supporting my point.  The pill, etc., are yet MORE technological
> advances supporting our standard of living.
>

They aren't that great over those of 50 years ago.

They had condoms then & we have condoms now.

Nuclear power stations are basically steam engines as are most forms of
electricity production.

The oil burning engines are basically the same as they were. Chemical rockets
are in essence unchanged.

Heck it is a longer time since the B52 flew & now than it was between the
Wright Brothers & the B52 flying.

Does the B52 look as archaic now as the Wright flyer would have looked in the
50'es?

>> Nope. What I see is a slowing of the progress of humanity for the
>> first  time since the dark ages.
>
>
> You must be living on another planet.
>

Nope.

>> The Romans could travel faster than those in the dark ages. The
>> romans  had clean water & a better life expectancy.
>
>
> No relevence to the modern era.
>

20 years ago travel was faster. Now it is steadily getting slower. The move
from Roman levels to dark ages levels did not happen over night.

>> Fairly shortly you are going to have the rich countries "owning" most
>> of  the knowledge & the poor having to either do without or change the
>> rules  on what can be "owned". This is already occuring wrt medecine.
>>
> Those poor countries suffer from ignorance of their own making.

Really.



> Compare  the social systems of the west versus, say, the Islamic world
> and ask  yourself why so little technological innovation and publishing
> happens in  the latter.
>

Compare the western societies to the eastern asian ones & ask why so little
production occurs in the western societies.


Adam

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