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America's Innovative edge...is it heading off a cliff ??
"They don't want a population of citizens capable of
critical thinking. They don't want well-informed,
well-educated people capable of critical thinking.
They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.
That's against their interests. They don't want people
who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table
and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a
system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
You know what they want? Obedient workers -- people who
are just smart enough to run the machines and do the
paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all
these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay,
the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime
and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute
you go to collect it." - George Carlin
This is something that I have been thinking about for a while.
When I learn of companies that buy other companies to get
their ideas. When I hear of less and less R&D being done.
When I hear of research divisions being closed as cost cutting
measures. I wonder what is happening to this country.
And others are wondering as well.
that come close but I think he leaves out an important point.
That is why and how we are educating our young.
The why being money. Not money for education but the whole
reason we send our kids off to school. The reason they are told
from the time they start pre-school. You need and education
to get a good job. And now even that won't do it..or likely to
in the future. That education equals money. And kids are not
stupid. When they see daddy or mommy with their fancy degree
unable to get work....they begin to question this motivation as
well.
Add to that the systematic crushing of a child's natural creativity
and inquisitiveness from the time the enter school. To the point
of being punished or even thrown out if they express an opinion
or ask a question deemed inappropriate to the powers that be.
Even being discouraged by the parents. It was bad when I was
in school back in the 1960s. It is even worse now.
When I was young...about 8 or so, my father though of me as a
destructive child because I was for ever tearing apart radios.
But it was not long before I could repair them and then build them
from scratch. Children today that engaged in such activity would
be considered "a problem child" and probably given drugs and
psychotherapy to "cure" them of this.
We are turning out educated drones that pass tests (marginally)
but lacking the skills to invent and create and innovate. When we
should be encouraging our young to imagine and question.
The Edisons and DeForests and Teslas did not come from some
test teaching institution. These were people who had the audacity
to ask why and why not and to go out and experiment to find the
answers to their questions. They were the dreamers.
And we are now killing the dreamers of today because it does not
fit society's plan for them to dream.
C
critical thinking. They don't want well-informed,
well-educated people capable of critical thinking.
They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.
That's against their interests. They don't want people
who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table
and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a
system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
You know what they want? Obedient workers -- people who
are just smart enough to run the machines and do the
paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all
these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay,
the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime
and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute
you go to collect it." - George Carlin
This is something that I have been thinking about for a while.
When I learn of companies that buy other companies to get
their ideas. When I hear of less and less R&D being done.
When I hear of research divisions being closed as cost cutting
measures. I wonder what is happening to this country.
And others are wondering as well.
And then there is the challenge from Asia. The numbersAnd why is this ? Well Norseman has a blog about education
are small, but the trend is clear. Pharmaceutical
research--dominated by America today--is succumbing to
the same dynamics that drove T-shirt manufacturing and
electronics production overseas. "In 2006, 5.5 percent
of all global pharmaceutical patent applications named
one inventor or more located in India, and 8.4 percent
named one or more located in China," according to a
report by the Kauffman Foundation. This was a fourfold
increase from 1995, and corresponds to a surge in drug
demand in emerging markets--from 13 percent of global
industry sales growth in 2001 to 27 percent in 2006.
With the end of the Cold War, Americans stopped
worrying about the Soviet threat and, as a result, R&D
funding for applied science plummeted, dropping 40
percent in the 1990s. It has picked up since then, but
the government's share of overall R&D spending remains
near its all-time low. And while corporations still
spend on R&D, they do not fund the kind of basic
research that leads to breakthroughs.
America's decline is most evident in the one realm of
high technology where the U.S. government has, until
recently, seemed most uninterested: energy. The three
most important areas where current technology could
yield big results are solar, wind, and battery
production (the latter because the energy has to be
stored somewhere). According to the investment bank
Lazard Frères, the world's largest wind-turbine
manufacturer (by revenue) is a U.S. company: General
Electric. But the other nine companies among the top 10
are scattered around the world, including Germany
(Nordex), Denmark (Vestas), India (Suzlon), and Spain
(Acciona).
The situation in solar is similar: U.S. companies take
up two slots on the top-10 list (First Solar at No. 2,
and SunPower at No. 7), but Japan and China both occupy
three slots. What's more, Gary Pisano and Willy Shih,
professors at Harvard Business School, argue that
although the United States still produces about 14
percent of the world's photovoltaic cells, "it no
longer is a significant player in crystalline
silicon-based solar panels, the prevailing technology."
Eight of the world's top 10 battery manufacturers are
headquartered in Japan. Only one--Johnson Controls--is
based in the United States. (China's BYD is the other.)
The lithium-ion battery in the much-touted Chevy Volt
will be manufactured in South Korea. The next evolution
in battery technology is large-scale storage--the kind
that would hold the electricity generated by solar or
wind power so it can be put to use at night or when the
wind's not blowing. The leader in this area is also a
Japanese company, NGK Insulators, which makes highly
efficient sodium-sulfur ("molten salt") batteries.
that come close but I think he leaves out an important point.
That is why and how we are educating our young.
The why being money. Not money for education but the whole
reason we send our kids off to school. The reason they are told
from the time they start pre-school. You need and education
to get a good job. And now even that won't do it..or likely to
in the future. That education equals money. And kids are not
stupid. When they see daddy or mommy with their fancy degree
unable to get work....they begin to question this motivation as
well.
Add to that the systematic crushing of a child's natural creativity
and inquisitiveness from the time the enter school. To the point
of being punished or even thrown out if they express an opinion
or ask a question deemed inappropriate to the powers that be.
Even being discouraged by the parents. It was bad when I was
in school back in the 1960s. It is even worse now.
When I was young...about 8 or so, my father though of me as a
destructive child because I was for ever tearing apart radios.
But it was not long before I could repair them and then build them
from scratch. Children today that engaged in such activity would
be considered "a problem child" and probably given drugs and
psychotherapy to "cure" them of this.
We are turning out educated drones that pass tests (marginally)
but lacking the skills to invent and create and innovate. When we
should be encouraging our young to imagine and question.
The Edisons and DeForests and Teslas did not come from some
test teaching institution. These were people who had the audacity
to ask why and why not and to go out and experiment to find the
answers to their questions. They were the dreamers.
And we are now killing the dreamers of today because it does not
fit society's plan for them to dream.
C
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Okay, but you still understand that the earth is only six thousand years old, right?
November 16, 2009 2:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me ?? Mel Brooks is older than that.
C
November 16, 2009 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I call them dream squashers.
Your telling of tearing apart the radios made me laugh, C. From the time he was 12-13 years old my son tore apart every receiver or piece of audio equipment he got his hands on. Old junk he would find or people would give him or would buy for a dollar or two at yard sales. Just tore 'em apart. There were two stacks, four foot high, of gutted electronic 'things' in his room.
"What are you doing tearing these things apart?" I'd ask.
"I'm fixin' 'em, Ma!" he'd say.
And eventually, he did learn to fix 'em. On his own. He wasn't taught how in school. By the time he was sixteen he was building audio speakers and selling them to friends, then to friends of friends. I was the only mom in the county that had a set of 'death boxes' in the back of her ride. All I had to do was flip a switch on the dashboard and I could make the world shake. I love Norman Greenbaum. :o)
From the time she was just a tyke, I knew my daughter would be an artist. She was very creative, so I tried to give her access to ways of expressing that creativity. Then she got to high school and enrolled in the art class and I swear that teacher did everything she could to squash any creativity in her students. At the time my daughter was going through that dark teenage angst thing...her favorite color was black and the world sucked and you know the rest....
But, the art teacher insisted upon perkiness and my daughter got quite a scolding for painting a black and red madonna type figure crying tears of blood. "All she wants is pictures of bunnies and flowers!" my daughter moaned.
"Well," I said, "Give her what she wants at school, but at home, paint what you like."
So, at school my daughter painted a field of flowers and smack in the middle added a pair of frisky bunnies......doing what comes natural to bunnies. :-O
Yeah. I got a call from the principal. I was always getting calls from the school. I think they had me on speed dial. But, an uneasy truce was called and my daughter painted on. She is now working her way through college with the aim of becoming an art teacher. In fact, she wants to teach at her old high school. Ah, sweet revenge.
I am havering.....missing my kids a bit during this time of year.
But, those dream squashers, C. They're everywhere. And you are right. The true innovators aren't massed produced within our education system and I often wonder how many fresh ideas were killed by the dream squashers.
At the end of my ramble here, I would like to add something about the green energy tech and what we are up against and how the quest for profit is killing the dream more every day.
In Texas, building a big ole wind farm has been proposed. Good, yes? Our government is partially funding it. Stimulus, good, yes? Green jobs, good, yes?
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is rejecting the project. Why?
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=49&articleid=20091106_49_E4_WASHIN818690Why could we not use the stimulus money to build the factory to build the turbines here? I mean, there's more than a few empty factories around. We have an idle workforce. What's the hold up?
No innovators.
And green industry dreams are squashed.
November 16, 2009 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Ford plant here in MN is set to close soon. Heavy industrial plant, built-in hydropower (it's self-sufficient for electricity due to the dam right outside and sells power to Xcel Energy to boot), attached railyard, you know, it'd be a perfect place to build wind turbines or similar things.
And I know you're in Michigan. Think they'd like some manufacturing jobs?
Both the innovation and the value-additive work are going.
We're looking at a rather grim future unless things change direction.
November 16, 2009 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Schumer's got a bit of a pose going here, and I'm not quite sure why - but I'd be slightly hesitant about accepting his words. He MAY be commenting because he supports rival wind developers, and just wants to throw sand in the gears of these other guys.
Anyway. Wind manufacturing. Fairly central to my work these past 5 years, so, for what it's worth....
- 30%-40% of the construction cost of a wind-farm has nothing to do with the turbine, and will be supplied from the US. This is roads, foundations, preparation, transmission connections, and all the onsite monitoring work, etc.
- Then the turbine itself can really be broken into 3 parts, the tower, the blades of the turbine, and then the nacelle itself, with the gears and all. There are now many US-based blade and tower firms, and I'd be 98% sure these parts will come from the US. That's another 30% of the total cost of the wind-farm.
- The stage that'll be made overseas is the nuts and guts of the wind turbine, the nacelle - the box - with its gears and bearings and such. This stuff COULD be made in the US, but right now, a lot of it is made at specialized European plants who actually supply a number of wind-turbine manufacturers. To build new capacity in that industry will take years, and a hell of a lot of coordinated planning. The US might be able to get these plants, but it'll be a fight, and won't simply arrive in the short-term.
So that's the dilemma left. Do you take say 60% local US content in the new industry and proceed, scaling it up, and go for the other components... or do you sit back? I can tell you, this is exactly the same issue in Canada, the UK, and other countries.
China is going for the whole 9 yards, every bit of the chain, but they're scaling up the construction of wind far more than even the US. For instance, a medium-sized wind-farm in the US today might be 100 megawatts, but the Chinese have apparently planned and initiated 6 windfarms of 10,000 megawatts each. Which is definitely enough to draw the whole manufacturing process in to look at locating there.
So... Schumer's words? Not sure what he's playing at, but he's not working from any deep knowledge of the wind industry.
November 16, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for that Q. Apparently the goal for China is 100 GW of wind power by 2020
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90857/90860/6650353.html
November 16, 2009 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, China's make a pretty spectacular move into green industries, and the MSM doesn't seem to have noticed much back here. In plug-in hybrid and electric cars, there's BYD (which Buffett just bought 10% of), which was only founded 14 years ago, now produces >1/2 of the world's cell phone batteries, and has just rolled out it's first plug-in hybrid car, ahead of the Volt.
On wind, as your article says, China's just tripled the target they set a year or two ago, and wind will outpace not just solar, but nuclear as well. The US has more installed wind-power in place than anyone in the world, even with its stop/start approach, at about 30,000 MW's in place. That gives a sense of scale to China's plans to build multiple 10,000 MW wind-farms.
China will be giving us all lectures on green technology within about 18 months. When I compare working here, and then my conversations with the Chinese, I'm left feeling as though we're unbearably bureaucratic and risk-averse, the way the US used to feel about Britain. Even our private sector feels shallow, short-sighted, and frankly - stupid. All these venture capital geniuses who talk out their asses. Argh. And the state? Obama personally has the right idea on some of these sectors - I mean, he sees plug-in hybrids linking to wind-farms through a smart grid. But the talent to see this stuff is too thin, and the machinery is SO unbearably corrupt, so much in favour of the firms that already have money and power, it makes me wince.
And winge.
November 16, 2009 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fareed's piece talked about the incredible success of government investment in research in the past. Why not now so much? Obama spoke of that, too, didn't he?
November 16, 2009 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
The gear works......I was thinking that it might be tied up with patent issues, which was forcing the manufacturing to be in China instead of here. And I did think it was odd that a Senator from New York was second guessing how Texas runs its business, so you may have a point about Schumer, Mr. Esq. Later in the day, if time allows, I will look over his list of donors.
November 16, 2009 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
The real brawler on wind-turbine patents is a US firm, GE. Interesting story, actually. GE got the patents from... Enron. Who had stepped into wind during their heyday, and bought US innovators like Zond, as well as German innovators too. GE, being a mega-corp, defends these patents like a beast. Underlying it though are early patents which the Europeans (and others) claim are far too general. And you see odd'ish things happen like Judges in GE patent cases siding with GE, when staff recommend otherwise. Anyway, some of the results are - a worsened shortage of wind-turbines in the US; greater market share and output for GE; a block on other firms from building turbine-manufacturing in the US; etc. Bit of info in this book, along with lots else on wind. See page 604.
November 16, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's interesting you mention the GE tactics about patenting etc which are exactly the kind of thing I was referring to below. With so many individuals and companies working on common technologies there has to be a limit to patenting things that are logical conclusions of a common research effort being conducted worldwide. All these companies are working from a common base of knowledge and to specify one or another has a unique idea in the application of that knowledge is a load of manure. And because the bigger companies have gobs of money to spend for legal purposes you can easily have persons who have a great idea but because of a patent can't apply the knowledge gained through their own research. This is a real mess.
November 16, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel as though we North Americans have screwed up the entire process of making things. I've see things go wonky at a whole series of stages - during the patenting process, with the engineers, in manufacturing investment itself, in public procurement, and in getting basic research done - the whole process seems to be driven by who make the fastest money and get away clean.
I know what we mostly hear is that it's caused by governmental failure and red tape, but I just didn't find that to be the case. I usually found government to be useless, but the real barriers were almost universally put in place and kept up by private commercial interests. And those interests have, quite simply, become such ferocious, well-trained liars, and the media and the government such weak-willed investigators, that the barriers stay up, the money gets hauled off in behind the curtain, and all we're left with is a hollow shell.
November 16, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
And what that means is that we've turned our backs on highly value-additive work.
All for the sake of quarterly dividends.
Sad.
November 16, 2009 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have it exactly right. I think that is where government comes in. Government has to tell these idiots to knock it off. And when one or another wants to file a lawsuit the courts need to tell them to go piss up a pipe. Just think what it would be like if this was a worldwide patenting process enforcable across borders. Nothing would ever get done with all the lawyers going nuts.
It comes back to what I said earlier. You have all these universities and companies working on research with a common base of knowledge. They are all going to the same place on the same road at the same time, independently, just like on a highway. They will each get to that place. Nobody can own the knowledge gained along the way or what they do with it. That is a load of manure. Knowledge is universal. Nor can you own explicit uses derived of the knowledge because the knowledge defines what you can do. What we have is a roadblock to human creativity that prohibits solving problems we all face. We are all here doing the same thing simultaneously so it is obvious we'll all be evolving the science in the same way. Arguing over who owns it is dumb. It is all derived from human thought. How can you patent that?
November 16, 2009 9:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2010&cid=N00001093&type=I
I didn't see anything connecting Schumer to green tech or wind energy, but that's not saying it isn't there. I just don't know what/who to look for.
November 16, 2009 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grouch, we'd love some jobs here!
November 16, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well Flower you might wonder why I did not go ito electrical engineering. I go turned off to that field when doing electronic service work. I get wondering how in the world some of the these design decisions were being made by the engineers since so many were so horrible. That anyone should have seen that the design was prone to failure.
Well I was to find out, much to my dismay, that the decisions were NOT being made by the engineers.
The engineers were being TOLD to design the TVs, radios, stereos and what not by bean counters to maximize profits. Period. That corporate did not give a wet slap about longevity or serviceability.
Just dazzle the public with bright colored lights and shiny buttons.
C
November 16, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a delightful story of family Flower.
Just delightful. I get the feeling your kids had some fun in your household. Dinner discussions must have been most interesting.
November 16, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do like that you encouraged your kids to be their own person and do their thing. I get the impression though that this is not the case in far too many circumstances.
I find myself running more and more into young people who..how can I say this...are afraid of failing at what they do. So instead of experimenting or attempting something new and creative, they will only attempt that which they have complete instructions for. That is they screw up...the sky will fall...the world will come to and end....and their parents will disown them.
It's kind of scary and disheartening at the same time.
There was a computer science professor that I knew at the Univ. I work at that had the same misgivings about the students that he taught. That the students lacked any desire to risk getting into trouble by trying something different.
C
November 16, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agree that education has a lot of responsibility here C, but also the lure of money - fast money - all along the chain of development.
That said, it was inevitable that the US's percentage share in these industries would begin to fall.
And one small adjustment to the lists provided. Measuring the Top 10 companies in a sector may tell you who was innovative in the past, but it's not necessarily a good measure of who's innovating NOW. So, in batteries, the US has one major success story, the company A123, spun out of MIT - and perhaps more to come. But it's still small and growing fast. In wind, same thing. It has Clipper Wind.
November 16, 2009 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kettering University is also getting into battery tech. My old stomping grounds...although it went by a different name back in the day. :o)
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/kettering-university-to-impact-international-hybrid-electric-conference,946568.shtml
November 16, 2009 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
When you look at the craziness of our patent system you are presented with a clear example of how knowledge is being increasingly locked up by corporations and made inaccessible. This is an alarming trend. It runs in concert with the increasing costs of a good education in our universities where research is being conducted and sponsored by government and the private sector but is held very closely by those who wish to commercialize it for profit.
All of this is occurring in the backdrop of an explosion of activity in the scientific realm that holds the key to the future. The goal of monetizing knowledge is harming everyone and will continue. I am sure you will see the partitioning of information and knowledge grow and cut off creativity for anyone who can't afford the price of admission. Knowledge is the currency of this century. You can't miss the certainty of this. You need only look at how government and corporations are seeking more and more sources and locking it away for their own use as they see fit. Every single time someone makes a new account on a service on the Internet their information and their ideas are out their for anyone to see and read. The value of this is staggering.
November 16, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Which is precisely why we need stalwarts like the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help keep the greed heads at bay.
C
November 16, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's the reason I contribute content to Wikipedia -- under a username unrelated to this one, of course. Despite that many of the PTB there appear to be using the slogan of "free knowledge" to pursue other goals. (This is an impression many established users have, yet because there's no other way to create an encyclopedia for the Internet, we put up with it. For now.)
November 16, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Makes me wonder how many great ideas have been bought up and hid away because they might put the buyer out of business.
C
November 16, 2009 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean like Nikola Tesla stories?
p.s. you left off an F in cliff in your title.
November 16, 2009 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks fixed. And ya...I ready about those Nikola Tesla stories. Don't know exactly what to make of them though. He was a very intelligent person and way ahead of his time.
C
November 16, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't either; I do have friends that are heavy Tesla free-electricity-conspiracists, though. Some claim he was an alien...Ka-ching!
November 16, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cutting R&D is a good way to find companies that are on the wrong track and on their way to failure:
The whole quote's pretty good (hell, I like the whole book). But the point is that R&D is essential.
I'm intrigued how you are tying R&D will to our educational style. It's interesting that how we are taught effects how we think. There have been efforts for better teaching in classrooms lately that try to get rid of the lecture and bring in critical thinking, but this is still experimental even in college. We ought to get on the ball.
November 16, 2009 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The quote should be "to match or exceed their earnings..."
November 16, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
C, you are in a moooooood today! Is there someone around in case you decide to do yourself in?
Unfortunately, I can't disagree with much of what you are saying, but jeez...where's the valium? I'm making a mad dash for my happy place now. :-)
November 16, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh...I'm sorry...I thought you knew. The C stands for curmudgeon. I'm always like this.
C
November 16, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Y'know that old Pepto Bismol commercial that goes:
Indi ... gestion!
Well now the refrain is:
Edu ... cation!
Our systems are too delicate for all the roughage you get in real learning. I heard an advert on the radio for something that would allow you to learn without all the rote memorization and drills. In my experience, you learn while doing drills and memorization.
November 16, 2009 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am not sure you are being serious here Donal or whether you will have a problem removing your tongue from your cheek.
But my experience in learning was quite the opposite. I learned best when the subject was explained, I tried it out myself, failed then had the reason why I failed explained to me.
But then this would require someone who had the time, experience and patience to help. Nearly all of which is missing from todays education system.
Especially in higher education where you sit in a hall with 150 other people. All the while attempting to understand some small figure at a podium gesticulating wildly.
C
November 16, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
To me, "trying it out yourself," is doing a drill, or if you prefer, a problem. I learned two ways. One was in the midst of banging my head against problems, the other was later when the answer would come to me while I was doing something else.
November 16, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really did not look at that way Donal. To me it was experimenting with what I learned. Then maybe try a different approach, come at it from a different angle etc.
Much more interesting and fun than just spewing back what I was told. And it stuck better as well.
C
November 16, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
See it, do it, teach it.
Thus develops understanding - the real test of education. (Not whether we can repeat things, whether we understand the principles well enough to make informed speculations and judgments.)
November 16, 2009 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to a biography "Tesla studied at the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague". This likely means that he had a completely rigorous and stultifying European education. Which in turn enabled him to understand the mathematics behind the electromagnetic machines and other inventions far better than did Edison, who was an intuitive invention-by-tinkering type.
Lee DeForest had a PhD in Physics from Yale. As with other inventors, it was not easy for him to make money from his 300 or so patents.
A major reason for the decline in US innovation is the decline in major industrial research laboratories. Instead research funding is consumed by military projects or parceled out to research Universities. The latter is done inefficiently, since grants are small, research teams are small, and results are also small. Part of this is the system of grants to "principal investigators", where each faculty member wants to be a principal investigator and is supported only by a small team of post docs and grad students.
November 16, 2009 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lee DeForest had a PhD in Physics from Yale. As with other inventors, it was not easy for him to make money from his 300 or so patents.
This is true. However DeForest did not have a clue what was going on with his Audion tube initially. in fact it took him a number of tries to get the control grid in the correct place. he even believed, for a time, that gas in the tube made it work better. Which of course we know was totally wrong.
Which all goes to show that PhD really can mean 'Piled Higher and Deeper" sometimes.
C
November 16, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Formal education is much better at teaching analysis than it is at teaching synthesis. Synthesis is needed for invention, since the heart of invention is insight into how something can be done in a new and different way, often by combining elements that were previously thought unrelated.
November 16, 2009 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad to see others are concerned about this.
I had a discussion with my old man on the subject over the weekend and I just couldn't get through to him. He got stuck on "the system needs grunts.. the vast majority of people will always be grunts... " He may have a point, but I think we grunts will always shake out, so why not have the best educated grunts possible?
Perhaps your Carlin quote helps explain this.
November 16, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well Icky...did you remind him that the "grunts" are the ones who build your house, do the plumbing, electrical work, keep your car running...etc....etc.
C
November 16, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup. My wife is a grunt. She's a Tech 3 at a non-profit immunology research lab. But she manages the mouse colony, including the husbandry, and her PCR and screening results are considered top in her field.
Without grunts like my wife, R & D goes nowhere. But my wife wouldn't be where she is today without her education and my support.
Hell, I'm a grunt. A bean counter. I write creatively, but I don't plan on making a career out of it.
Nearly all of us aren't going to amount to much, historically speaking. But we are all part of that big marvelous beating heart of human progress and identity... and as such we should be honored and taught to full flower.
November 16, 2009 7:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think our innovative edge is falling off a cliff. Does anyone on here own an iPhone? Have you been on Facebook?
November 16, 2009 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tinker-toys for the brain dead.
C
November 16, 2009 10:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an interesting perspective. I guess you don't own a cellphone?
November 17, 2009 12:21 AM | Reply | Permalink