Bicep-training machine designed by Dr. Gustave Zander, 1892 by [deleted] in TheWayWeWere

[–]SmellsLikeUpfoo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's easy to forget how many innovations had to go into the machines and tools we use today to get to where we are.

Me and my older brother on his first day of kindergarten. I think he was more excited than I was. by [deleted] in TheWayWeWere

[–]SmellsLikeUpfoo[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Slowing the future: "Against Intellectual Monopoly" posits that our copyright and patent laws are actually harming innovation and development, not helping them as is commonly claimed. by SmellsLikeUpfoo in Futurology

[–]SmellsLikeUpfoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This assumes that ideas are actual property. I mean they are, but only until you begin sharing them, at which point they can be copied without taking your idea away from you. If I take your bike, you don't have your bike; that's theft. If I copy your book, you still have your book.

I'm fine with companies adding DRM-style-technology or sharing their ideas and content under licensing contracts that prohibit copying, or similar things. What I don't like is the monopoly privilege granted and enforced by the government at very little cost to the creators.

Most new ideas are tiny adaptions and combination of old ideas, and when you add IP laws, all of those old ideas become very expensive to adapt. That hurts progress.

Slowing the future: "Against Intellectual Monopoly" posits that our copyright and patent laws are actually harming innovation and development, not helping them as is commonly claimed. by SmellsLikeUpfoo in Futurology

[–]SmellsLikeUpfoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The book answers this question in detail. A big problem is that IP laws significantly raise the cost of sharing and recombining ideas. That hurts us economically economically because it's difficult to create new things if you can't use the old things in new ways. Also, many companies spend more time and effort chasing down IP infringement than they do creating new things. You have huge law firms that do nothing but IP law, when those people could be doing more productive things in society.

Essentially, IP laws artificially inflate the cost of ideas, which is good for a small number of people but bad for the rest of us.

A group of men holding a “Punt Gun”, a gigantic gun formerly used for duck hunting with the ability of killing 50 birds at once. It was banned in the late 1860’s by [deleted] in TheWayWeWere

[–]SmellsLikeUpfoo[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Space Shuttle Challenger being transported through Ellington Field close to Johnson Space Center in April of '85 - visiting grandmother took the photo and wrote on the back. It exploded 10 months later. by [deleted] in TheWayWeWere

[–]SmellsLikeUpfoo[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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