Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: On the Cusp of the Future
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:06:04 -0800
________________________________________ From: Bob Frankston [bob37-2 () bobf frankston com] Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 4:52 PM To: David Farber; 'ip' Cc: 'Hasan Diwan' Subject: RE: [IP] On the Cusp of the Future I’m not sure if the implication is that such funding is good or bad but I’m glad to see that such cooperation is not as favorable as it used to be even as, alas, we look for more government agenda-setting. While there has been government funding in the US much of it has been the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) that Eisenhower warned us about. It has had some lucky successes as with the Arpanet/Internet (very different things) but as I wrote in http://www.frankston.com/?name=IPGeni2 it has been a very corrupting influence in a number of ways. I use MIT’s Athena as an example of the government funding classic research while the PC industry grew up outside this control. Even when it seems benevolent and far sighted as with Minitel it becomes problematic over time because, by its very nature, such funding must become conservative if there is an well-defined agenda. The worst agendas are those that are so implicit that don’t recognize them for what they are – government distorting reality. No surprise that I see Telecom as an extreme example. Homeland security is looming just as a new book extolling Joe McCarthy has been published. I’m not arguing for total noninvolvement – after all the government is a mechanism for acting collectively but we must be wary about depending upon its ability to define the one true future. -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 15:50 To: ip Subject: [IP] On the Cusp of the Future ________________________________________ From: Hasan Diwan [hasan.diwan () gmail com] Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 7:56 AM To: David Farber Subject: On the Cusp of the Future For IP, if you wish, permalink at http://blog.prolificprogrammer.com/articles/2007/12/26/on-the-cusp-of-the-future where comments are welcome. Throughout the 1980s, Japan was heralded as a model for close governmental cooperation with industry, legendary work ethic, and mastery of high-technology. Then, in the early 90s, all the pointing to Japan as a model stopped. The economic growth fell to less than 1% (and negative in some quarters). Replace the word Japan with the words United States and replace 1980s with 1990s and 90s with 2000s, and the phrase is still, largely, true. Why hasn't this been realised? Part of it has to do with legendary geographical prowess and historical awareness. Any other ideas? From my vantage point, the similarities are striking. -- Cheers, Hasan Diwan <hasan.diwan () gmail com> ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- On the Cusp of the Future David Farber (Dec 26)
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- Re: On the Cusp of the Future David Farber (Dec 26)