From: Anne Marie Tobias (atobias@interwoven.com)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 18:41:41 MDT
Howdy all,
Samantha Atkins wrote:
> Anne Marie Tobias wrote:
> >
> > Unfortunately... once you leave the laboratory... you enter the
> > world of business and politics. As soon as you have a powerful
> > organization that has a powerful commitment to the way things
> > are (because it has that game wired), and it has as resources
> > the political engine (the best government money can buy), and
> > wallstreet, the opinion making machine... (US TODAY and
> > CNN the great mental homoginizers...), you can't be terribly
> > surprised that what happens in the lab, is not what happens in
> > the real world. We had ultra high efficiency, thin film plastic
> > solar cells in the lab at Carnegie Mellon three years ago. Where
> > are they? You think GE, and the fossil fuel guys are gonna let
> > that one by without messing with it? We have plastic batteries,
> > high charge density, low weight, non toxic, plastic batteries.
> > Where are they? Why aren't they in hybrid cars right this very
> > moment?
> >
>
> Uh, because the technology is not yet mature and power efficient
> and scalable enough?
Actually, the technology is fine... from little I've been able to gleen,
it's primarily a production problem... and getting appropriate funding.
The question I have is... why can't they get funding? The science is
solid, and the benefit clear? Very strange...
> > Why did the energy crisis suddenly blossom, when
> > fossil fuels strongest advocate entered the white house? Why
>
> Any fool with a calculator and basic math could see California
> was in for energy chaos at some point. You can't blame
> everything on da Bush.
What I can blame on GW is change of climate. While The House
that Bill Built was making the rules, California could hull brech as
often as it wanted, and as long as the economic engine was still
printing fresh money, Bill would be happy to run interference. The
minute that GW came into office, the contaiment field was turned
off and California experienced the sudden vacuum of space. Talk
about the final frontier!!! Only what got sucked out was out state
wealth... we spaced our money!
> > is that man unwilling to give California representatives more
> > than 20 minutes of his time... The largest economic engine in
> > the country, and the president won't talk to the governor...
> > What's wrong with this picture.
>
> Uh, it is unbelievable because it would be political suicide?
It seemed to be political nirvana for Bill? He was perfectly happy
swimming in a fool's paradise... I'm not saying what GW did was
even wrong. I'm just saying he could have sat down with the
Governor and said "THIS IS THE WAY IT'S GONNA BE...
You got exactly 18 months to get better or get dead..." it's the
same problem I have, with policemen who believe that the fact that
the warning shot went through the back of the perps head, isn't
justification to say... hhhmmmmm... mayhaps this was mishandled.
> > You're being teased all right, but has nothing to do with the
> > guys in the labs...
> >
> > As long as there is more profit in being stupid, why would'nt
> > you ever expect the people in power to do all they can to kill
> > the smart. It's just good business.
> >
>
> Uh, because you live in this world and in this world the
> relative wealth and well-being of the economy and others does
> have a direct impact on your own wealth and well-being? Killing
> the smart is neither smart, profitable or "good business".
>
> - samantha
In this world... we have given up the sanity of a planned future, for
the need to appease the quarterly beast. The only sound one here's
is the mantra quarterly profits. There is no room for subtlety, no
time for longterm planning, there is no justification for moral debate,
and pandering to philosophic musing is just not going to feed the
bulldog... what you do is you make a profit this quarter... and if you
want to stay the CEO, and keep getting those 7 digit per anum, pay
checks you keep doing whatever it is that you're told to do... That
profit this quarter demands that you do.
If 2,000 Indians die in Bhopal, because you cut corners... tough
noogies, if you clear cut the entire freaking state of Washington, too
bad so sad... if you have to lock 10 year old girls in labor camp
conditions to work for 16 hours a day for enough rice to feed a
chipmunk, and all 110 of them burn to death because nobody gave
someone a key to let them out in case of fire... hey it was a glitch a
bad business decision...
By the way... that last one... sounds like China huh... it was... it's
also Los Angeles... in the clothing district. Scary... really...
Until we begin to leave behind concepts that have been drug with
us for the last ten millenium, or longer, that let us treat one another
as things and not people... that make power and profit more
important that the future of humanity in general and people in
specific, and until we become completely clear that advances in
technology will soon amplify even small slides in morality into
gross misconducts compromising large populations... until we
are very clear about that as a society, we are going to have ever
greater trouble with stupidity calling the day.
Marie
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