I have zero issue with any energy source that produces enough electrical power and is not too costly. I do have real problems when people advocate technology which cannot, this day, supply enough energy. The grande prize is just incentive, great incentive, to produce a new energy source, a medical treatment, a means of earth transport, a spectacularly, successful spacecraft. I am just guessing that the prize thing may be a better motivator then just a grant. This holds true if you really want results or not? But if you can deliver these goodies the old fashioned way, then, I say, Rock on.
-----Original Message----- From: LizR <lizj...@gmail.com> To: everything-list <everything-list@googlegroups.com> Sent: Sat, Nov 9, 2013 11:17 pm Subject: Re: Our Demon-Haunted World The rich get richer via the stock exchange and similar financial institutions. This is done with software nowadays - a thousandth of a second delay in investing can mean the difference between accumulating and losing. This doesn't actually produce improvements in anything (except financial modelling software). It's a cloud of abstract numbers spiralling off into never never land with no connection to producing anything useful. On 10 November 2013 12:20, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: On 11/9/2013 2:49 PM, spudboy...@aol.com wrote: Yes, Jesse, I do buy into that arguement. If you permit me, I will exclude DailyKos Kos Kids from your evidence, as the are far from a disinterested party in this matter. Whatever the politics, whatever the polemics, a technology has to do this, be successful. If solar is always just a fraction of the world's energy, despite decades and bilions, then I have some problem with proposing it. "If", but then you draw conclusions as if you had stated a fact. Decades after oil was discovered it too only supplied a fraction of the world's energy. Or a successful solar tech, that powers all human activity, forever, may be 200 years away, for some unknown reason. What's your point - that you can imagine some insuperable problem with solar power? The Sun might stop shining? What about not nearly so speculative exhaustion of easily extracted fossil fuel? What if fossil fuel runs out? What if it makes large areas of the earth uninhabitably hot and dry. What should we do until that glorious day? We can say exactly, the same with fusion. Tax payer subsudies are fine, if they work. But I surmise these companies live for the subsidies, and not the big win in the market place. You surmise whatever fits your prejudice. Hence, my alternative of a grand prize to spur innovation, and win a giant profit that will wipe out an investors debts. I say we as a society have waited way too long, doing things the Statist way, lets let innovatoes, innovate, for the reward of an avalanche of prize money, plus tons of profits. I sense we are standing still, otherwise. And where are the great entrepreneurial advances of the past? Did private investors invent nuclear power, space flight, GPS, the internet, vaccinations, the Panama Canal, interstate highways. Free market capitalism is great for some things, but it's not going to invest in developing stuff with a 20yr horizon for return. Brent -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
