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Re: Sources of Innovation

Posted by Nick Thompson on Feb 13, 2010; 5:23pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Sources-of-Innovation-tp4566136p4567039.html

Yeah, but....

Doesn't War sometimes cut the other way?

What about the War on Space?  (Soon to become the War on Mars -- there's an
irony.)

NIck

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([hidden email])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]




> [Original Message]
> From: Owen Densmore <[hidden email]>
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
> Date: 2/13/2010 10:12:16 AM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Sources of Innovation
>
> There's an economic gorilla in the room no one takes seriously: War.
>
> We're now paying for two wars that are each a greater strain on our  
> economy than the recession and the stimulus bills.  Innovation has  
> costs that war denies.
>
> We actually need to get back to capitalism, too.  What!  Yup.  To big  
> to fail is not capitalism, otherwise the natural course of bankruptcy  
> would have worked.  Consider Eric's comment: "First, start-ups and  
> smaller businesses must be able to compete on equal terms with their  
> larger rivals. They don't need favors, just a level playing field."
>
> I think we have reached ungovernability.  Neither party is mine and  
> neither is effective.  We're in gridlock and its not just the  
> republicans being obstructive.
>
> On the positive note, I think we've seen the immense hierarchies  
> discredited.  The intelligence services add hierarchy for greater  
> coordination, and they fail.  Less hierarchy, more interaction would  
> be far better, as we know by diversity and complexity studies.  
> Another quote: "Second, encouraging risk-taking means tolerating  
> failure -- provided we learn from it."  If our government was agile  
> enough, we could explore then pull back from failures.
>
> Getting to Eric's comments (he's a past boss of mine, BTW), as usual  
> he's right on:
>    "More than ever, innovation is disruptive and messy. It can't be  
> controlled or predicted. The only way to ensure it can flourish is to  
> create the best possible environment -- and then get out of the way.  
> It's a question of learning to live with a mess."
>
> How odd that puts us into the Tea Party!
>
> Eric is right on as usual, and will be ignored.
>
>      -- Owen
>
>
> On Feb 13, 2010, at 6:21 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
>
> > In a recent washingtonpost.com article named
> > "Erasing our innovation deficit" ( http://bit.ly/cG6vGW )
> > Eric Schmidt said
> >
> > "We have been world leaders in [technological] innovation for  
> > generations. It has driven our economy, employment growth and our  
> > rising prosperity.
> > [..] We can no longer rely on the top-down approach of the 20th  
> > century, when big investments in the military and NASA spun off to  
> > the wider economy."
> >
> > Do you agree? What kind of approach does the
> > USA need to return to old strength?
> >
> > -J.
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org