Ernie: This is exasperating, seriously exasperating.
Back in the 1950s my friend Bernie highly recommended a book that was originally published in 1949, by U of Michigan professor, Leslie White, The Science of Culture. I purchased a paperback edition from maybe 1955 or thereabouts. White's thesis has been with me ever since. Here are some plaudits by an assortment of academics, etc, that should give you some idea of the value of the book; skip reading them if you want but at least look over the paragraph: Leslie White was one of the most important and controversial figures in American anthropology. This classic work, initially published in 1949, contains White's definitive statement on what he termed "culturology." In his new prologue to this reprint of the second edition, Robert Carneiro outlines the key events in White's life and career, especially his championing of cultural evolutionism and cultural materialism. Praise from readers "Republishing these pioneer articles now makes White's fundamental exposition easily available to a new generation of social scientists." Richard N. Adams, University of Texas "One of the best works ever produced by an anthropologist. White was a remarkable thinker and his writings were filled with 'intellectual content.'" Lewis R. Binford, Southern Methodist University "The enduring foundation of a science of culture is made supremely accessible thanks to the lucidity of White's writing." Robert Bates Graber, Truman State University "Written with a straightforward crispness. A welcome treat in an age when obscurity is often confused with profundity." David Kaplan, Brandeis University... There have been several editions in the years following, most recently in 2005. Not that you can't pick a few bones with Dr White, but his main contention is hardly arguable, namely, that any hot idea simply cannot remain any one person's property. This is because of the dynamics of culture. Ideas emerge "from the air," so to speak, viz, from shared culture, and implications of even the germ of a new concept as it becomes known when people talk about the ideas they encounter, or that follow from implications of those ideas. In other words, this seems to be the first appearance of the"meme" concept even if it was not called that back in the Eisenhower era. Think of something as complicated as the calculus. Newton invented it. Or did he? Unbeknownst to him, Leibniz was working on a parallel track and also came up with the calculus at about the same time. Doubtless there were still other deep thinkers at work on similar projects of their own, its just that none of these "would be" calculus inventors needed to complete their labors when news of Newton and Leibniz became known. It is this way in just about every field. The story of calculus is merely the best known example of the effect. White provided examples from a variety of fields, medicine, engineering, philosophy, you name it. My hunch is that the exact same phenomenon exists within the field of high tech, whether hardware inventions or new kinds of software. But you seem to be operating on the obsolete assumption that if you have a hot idea and can't develop it now, all you need to do is hide it in the basement and it will be there for you to exploit in 5 years or 15 years, it doesn't matter. It is your brainchild, no-one else can possibly have the same idea. It is safe with you. That way of thinking is dysfunctional. And its basic premise is false. If you wait any length of time someone else inevitably will come up with the same idea or something very similar. The imperative is to be "first to market." Why on earth isn't this obvious to you? Maybe because it contradicts a theory you have about 10 year plans, that you have all the time in the world and things can be taken care of at some date that is personally convenient. After all, no-one else can possibly have "your" idea, But think of RC. It was reinvented several times since the idea was first dreamed up in ca. 1980. This is part #1. ---------------------------------------- Part # 2 concerns the value of a viral video. What is a viral video worth? It depends, of course. At a minimum it gives fame to the originator. Many viral videos don't lead to much else, sometimes we are discussing someone who caught a lucky break with little or no sense of how to exploit the video to best effect. But, hell, what couldn't either of us do with a viral video? With some serious thought such a video would provide you, or me, with a fulcrum, a fixed point to move the world. It isn't possible to accurately predict viral videos, there are too many variables, but I think it is fair to say that the horse race idea at least has a chance to go viral, all the ingredients are there. And producing it would be fairly straight-forward and cheap. Heck, I'd do it all by myself except that my computer has no video camera and no microphone. But the idea is technically simple, just find a public domain video of a horse race and eliminate the sound track and supply a new sound track. I think that production values count, that it would benefit from a good announcer and some decent sound effects, but that is about all you would need. This is not like making an episode of Star Wars. Not that you do not see the potential, but it is the usual Dr Ernie approach, not "kick the can down the road," but kick the can into the next county and maybe you will get to it in 5 years, or 10 years, it really doesn't matter. Makes me want to pull out all my remaining hair. What if Apple or Microsoft had the chance to sponsor a viral video? Not a 100% chance of success, but far better than 50 / 50. They'd say, "tell you what, that's a good idea for our product launch in 2023" ????? They would??? Like hell they would. They would be on it in a heartbeat and you know it. Frustrated in Oregon BR PS Very frustrated. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
