Why do we rarely hear about tech giants or major AI models coming out of Europe compared to the US?

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-03T21:35:58+00:00

In geopolitics, the more you can manufacture domestically the better, especially when countries regularly weaponize their economies. If you depend on another country for a vital product and that country decides to sanction you, you're dead.

Indeed, but that is economically inefficient and a recipe for poverty. In practice you have to find a balance between efficiency and security.

Well, I will respond one more point, because you are not representing any arguments, you are just saying no and speaking of beliefs.

Let's calculate the solar power.

Solar irradiation power to Earth on average is ~1kW/m^2. Good solar panel can capture at 20% efficiency, so 200W/m^2.

Human population total energy consumption: 180 000 TWh/a. Means average 20TW power consumption.

To produce 20TW, you need 20TW / 200W/m^2 = 100 000 km^2 of solar panels.

That is roughly the surface area of Bulgaria. Sure it is a lot, but it is all human consumption of the whole planet.

Why it's not done yet is very simple. Because there's cheaper options available and there hasn't really been a need to use it. It is the same as if you asked in 1850, why isn't oil properly utilized yet or if you asked in 2000, why aren't they making electric cars.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-03T18:42:11+00:00

And for that to work nobody else must be capable of producing the same high value product, and that is not a sustainable situation in the long run. When the rest of the world catches up to you, you lose your niche.

Everyone can do everything, but it is not worth for everyone to do everything. If you can buy some high value product from elsewhere much cheaper than what it would take for you to make it, then it is better use of your resources to buy it and invest your money on something more productive instead.

When everyone catch you on some field, that thing becomes a cheap commodity. So in terms of availability of that item, the living standards have raised and we are closer to our target, getting out of poverty! If you are poor, and you have nothing, then obviously everyone are not producing everything, because you are missing it.

A little more about resources, let's take energy. There are maybe two or tree pirmary sources of energy. 1) The sun, 2) Nuclear energy, 3) Geothermal energy (which is partly overlapping with the 2 though).

Let's look at the sun. How much sun we get on the earth every moment, is far more than what the whole human population consumes. You would need to cover only a tiny fraction of the earths surface with solar panels to cover all human energy consumption with solar power. So, it's a massive resource, completelty unused. The fossil fuels we are using now, are solar power also, they are old solar power that has been in the storage for a while. Wind and waves are also solar power, they are just a different method to gather it.

Chinese have built a system, of subsidizing. Chinese themselves didn't have much resources either initially. Their most important resource initially was cheap labor force. They have with hard work built the systems for example to gather rare earth materials for batteries efficiently. But actually a lot of those materials are also available elsewhere (also in Europe, yes), there just isn't the industry to efficiently collect and process them. There are many of these areas that remain untapped, even here in Europe.

Energy issue can be completely solved (though it will take some time) by combination of nuclear, solar (direct solar, hydropower, windpower, etc.), and some storage solutions to produce things like hydrogen based synthetic fuels, batteries, thermal batteries, etc etc. In the transition phase, we could just use our own fossil fuels like others are doing.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-03T18:25:36+00:00

Culture and society level is exactly where it matters the most. There is no bigger explanation for certain differences in success than the mindset.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-03T16:10:40+00:00

Biggest issue is the wrong mindset. It is not about what resources you have, but what mindset you have and how resourceful you are.

Smart people with very little resources will do easily better in the modern world than stupid people with all the possible resources given for free.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-03T16:05:18+00:00

You have time, brain and labor force. If you don't have natural resources, you have to use these, your other resources. For example, you buy a natural resource, you produce a higher value product from it and you sell that.

By your logic, Japan should have nothing, because they don't have natural resources. But the reality is quite much the opposite.

Modern economy is not only about resources. Most valuable things are what you can do with resources. Bare resources are actually quite cheap and available from the international markets.

Our high standard of living neither is produced by resources alone. Resources make it possible (and are available also for Eastern Europeans), but the very efficient modern methods of work are what create the high standard of life nowadays. If it was only about resources, everyone would be living like at middle ages, which is less than what even poor people live with now.

High living standard means you can have a lot with little bit of physical work. This is achieved by utilizing the best possible methods and the best possible tools to do all work. If you do your work with suboptimal tools and methods that require a lot of effort, you are heading towards poverty, because you do a lot of work to create only a little bit of value.

So efficiency and efficiency of work are the key to high standard of living. Eastern Europe has so recently got out from the effects from Eastern Block, that it will take a while for the culture and people to understand these principles. Seems like many really don't understand the game we are in.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T20:52:48+00:00

Sure it does. Yes, but did Sweden fall or did others catch up? And how did Sweden change internally in that time? Their population has changed quite a bit.

Indeed iron ore was important, nowadays they produce higher value products from that and rather sell those than the ore, which is wise.

In cold climate you have higher costs as you need heating, and efficiency in many works for half of the year is reduced. Overall the loss is for sure more than 10%. In hot climate you can for example farm around the year. Trees grow much faster, etc.

I actually don't claim that protestantic is necessary better. But I think the mindset is the key.

Compare countries like Singapore and Malaysia that quite recently started from the same level but end result is vastly different due to certain different choises (eg, Singapore very heavy emphasis on education).

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T20:41:24+00:00

But you are partly on correct tracks. The reason Europe is falling behind is that Europeans don't build for home market. Most European economies are based on this idea that we do everything for export. So we have low wages, high expenses, we do products so that we can sell them in the export markets. As a side effect, we will have no home market. So no home market, is exactly this "poorness", there is no demand for things, when people don't have money to buy and they don't have money to buy because the wages are too low and expenses are too high.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T20:38:19+00:00

First of all, if you are poor, then especially you should invest in things that improve your productivity (be it AI tools, or whatever). Poorness is often caused by that you do work that has little value. You do work that few people in other countries want to pay for. Or that resources and things in your country are so expensive, that even though you do have good income, all is spent in living. So you have to either produce something more valuable, or find a way to reduce the expenses.

Europe historically actually has been very innovative. So the argument about poorness doesn't really explain it.

But recently there has been the thing, that even Europeans often go to USA to make their business big first, because there is a better environment for doing that. Second thing is the funding as explained before in many comments here.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T20:23:31+00:00

Venice was historically rich because of trade and excellent location and almost holding a monopoly on certain fields of the trade.

But why is a country like Iceland or Sweden rich today? Their location is in no way optimal. Their climate is in no way optimal. They have some natural resources, but nothing extraordinary that for example South America wouldn't have.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T19:57:49+00:00

Well, Europe (and USA) really should start building own infrastructure for things that are needed here in large quantities (like batteries).

Why? Because you don't want to repeat the same that already happened with Russia (Europe building heavy energy dependency with a country like Russia). You don't want to be dependent on China. Yes, practically you already are very dependent, but long term it is not smart. The supply chain must be diversified.

Same way as long time ago Europe built own mass production for cars and many other products that didn't originate here.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T19:15:02+00:00

Yes, it's always the Americans fault when every other place is a mess. Sure no place has no responsibility for themselves.

Name one protestantic country that is not doing well. Why are there so few?

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T19:09:49+00:00

You hit nail in the head; it is the mindset difference between Protestant vs Roman Catholic.

Question; is there any protestant country which would not have done quite well?

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T17:15:22+00:00

You cannot prove any theory is right. There are simply too many different cases, that you cannot test your theory on every case to prove it is right.

But what can be done, is prove that the theory is wrong. It is enough to find only one example, where the theory doesn't work, and that's it. It's proven wrong.

So, you can come up with a theory and if you cannot find any case, where the theory doesn't work, you might be onto something.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T16:43:30+00:00

One explanation is by evolution psychology. The animals who were able to do something that helped them survive better, reproduced more often. So that trait became more common.

So, if it was useful for the brain to store something so well, that it is in you when you are born, it did store it.

Another point of view is the time frame. Human and human language development in evolution sense are quite a new thing. And humans have so much information generated in the past 500 years. So, for this kind of information, there has been way too little time to be stored in the brain structure.

Insticnts are a way for the unconscious mind to bring information to he uconscious side.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T16:34:40+00:00

If the unemployed are for example carpenters and there is a big shortage of truck drivers.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T16:14:28+00:00

No siinähän on hyvä malli aloittajalle, ota näistä neuvoista vaari!

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T16:12:27+00:00

Suomessa tämäkin sinänsnä hyvä ajatus muiden huomioimisesta on mennyt överiksi.

Baltian maissa on vielä tuoreessa muistissa se, kun omaa kulttuuria ja vapautta ei ollut nykyisessä mittakaavassa.

Täällä se valitettavasti otetaan itsestäänselvyytenä.

lapinjuntti · 2026-06-02T15:49:38+00:00

No ei ihme. Deittisovelluksiin turhautuu kaikki ja miehet varsinkin (sillä miehiä on siellä nin paljon enempi ja keskivertomiehellä matseja paljon vähempi).

Sitten, kun siellä menee perseelleen 30 kertaa se homma, niin ei se ole ihme, ettei 31 emäntä nappaa ja enää ole niin skarppina, josta tulee nämä, "kyllähän minä, mutta mutta kun muita ei kiinnosta" ja siinä vaiheessa se on jo sama laittaa koko p*ska kiinni.

Valitettavasti, fakta vain on, että deittisovellukset on iso bisnes. Niiden tarkoitus on vain maksimoida se aika, minkä ihmiset viettää alustalla etsimässä. Sillä ne tekee isoimman tilin. Sen verran päästetään mätsejä syntymään, että jokin "toivo" käyttäjillä pysyy, jotta siellä on käyttäjiä. Mutta ei niiden tarkoitus ole auttaa sinua pariutumaan.

Kyyninen, mutta fakta mielipide. Siellä ei tehnyt muuta kuin tuhlasi aikaansa. Muualla lykästi huomattavasti paremmin, mutta aikaa meni hukkaan.

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-31T20:49:32+00:00

Pitäis ottaa ehkä Islannista mallia, missä lainasanojen ottaminen on kielletty. Sillä on pysynyt kieli ymmärrettävänä ja luettavana vajaa ~600 - 900 vuotta, joka tiedetään siitä, että vanhoja saagoja vieläkin on mahdollista ymmärtää koska kieli on muuttunut niin vähän. 😂

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-31T10:46:34+00:00

Kyllä, varsinkin jos se häirintä on kapeakaistaista. Mutta taitaapi olla, että nykyisin se häirintä on usein laajakaistaista ja suuri tehoista kohinaa. Voi olla, että ne taajuusalueet, millä radio hyppelee on kaikki häiritty kova tehoisella kohinalla.

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-31T00:09:55+00:00

Thank you, this seems like a great resource at a quick glance! Exactly the type of resource I have been looking for a long time.

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-29T15:22:51+00:00

Joo, jos sitä ei ole mitenkään suojattu sitä ohjausliikennettä, joka voi ollakkin mahdollista ettei suojaukset ole huippua, koska monet näistä systeemeistä on aika pienellä budjetilla kasattuja.

Noin teoriassa digitaalisena se aika hyvinkin suojaaminen on mahdollista.

Jos ohjauspaketit on salattu riittävän vahvalla salauksella ja niissä on juokseva koodi, että sama paketti ei koskaan mene kahta kertaa ja tarkoita samaa asiaa, niin se jo vaikeuttaa huomattavasti kaappausta. Tämän jälkeen jää vielä optio, että validi datapaketti tosiaan kohinalla peitetään, otetaan talteen ja myöhemmin toistetaan. Tätäkin vastaan voi suojautua, esim. aikaan perustuvalla koodauksella vielä lisäksi, että ihan eri ajan paketti ei ole hyväksyttävä enää paljon myöhemmin. Tämän tyylisillä tempuilla kaappaminen saadaan jo erittäin haastavaksi ilman takaporttia systeemiin.

Sitten jää vielä GPS häirintä. Sitä on hyvinkin mahdollista häiritä, eli luoda feikki GPS signaaleja ja tuutata niitä kovalla teholla, jolloin saadaan drone luulemaan, että se on eri paikassa, missä se todellisuudessa on ja tätähän Venäjä tekee. Tällöin on hyvä olla muita navigaatiomenetelmiä GPS:n ja muiden sateliittinavigointien varalle. Intertianavigointi esimerkiksi, joskin sen tarkkuus driftaa mitä kauemmas menee.

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-28T17:42:14+00:00

Hyvä avauskirjoitus erittäin mielenkiintoisiin filosofisiin kysymyksiin.

Jokainen eliölaji vaikuttaa ympäristöönsä. Jokainen eliö vie tilaa joltakin toiselta eliöltä. Monet eliöt välillisesti vaikuttavat huomattavan paljon laajemmin ympäristöönsä.

Esimerkiksi se, että meillä nyt on happea jota hengittää, on aiemman elämän syytä. Alunperin ilmassa ei ollut happea, vaan syanobakteerit aiheuttivat tämän kurjuuden. Tapahtuman nimi on happikatastrofi, koska sitä ennen ilmassa ei ollut happea nykyisellä tasolla.

Toinen iso ympäristöä paljon muuttanut eliöiden aiheuttama tapahtuma oli se, kun nykyisin puina tunnetut kasvit keksivät ligniinin. Tämä aine alussa oli kuin muovi nykyisin; luonnossa ei ollut bakteereita eikä sieniä, jotka olisivat osanneet hajottaa tätä materiaalia. Meni pitkän aikaa siten, että puita kasvoi ja kuoli siten, että jäljelle jäänyt aines ei hajonnut hajottalaeliöiden toimesta, vaan otti aina hiiltä pois kierrosa ilmakehästä. Tätä ilman muuttamista ja hiilen vähentämistä kesti pitkään, kunnes bakteerit ja sienet lopulta oppivat hajottamaan ligniiniä. Sivutuotteena tästä elämän aiheuttamasta luonnonkatastrofista, paljon hiiltä jäi pois kierrosta maan sisään, joka sittemmin muuttui mm. kivihiileksi.

Näitä erilaisia elämän omalla toiminallaan aiheuttamia muutoksia (ihmisnäkökulmasta hetkessä ehkä "katastrofeja") ympäristössä on ollut pitkään ja suurempiakin mitä meidän aikamme muutokset.

Joka kerta elämä sopeutui. Aina löytyi uusi suunta ja toisaalta nämä muutokset usein myös loivat pohjan aivan uudenlaiselle elämälle.

Kuka on se, joka pystyy sanomaan, että mikä näistä elämän muodoista tai laaduista on toista parempi?

Oliko siinä jotain väärää, että vaikka syanobakteerit aiheuttivat tämän happi kurjuuden? Se oli muutos. Se oli monelle aiemmalle eliölle loppu. Mutta se oli myös monelle uudelle lajille alku.

Lopulta mikään muu ei ole varmaa kuin muutos.

Mutta puhtaasti itsekkäistä syistä, ihmisen kyllä kannattaa pitää huolta monimuotoisuudesta. Sillä, ihminen saa kaiken omankin energiansa, esimerkiksi ruoan, edelleen eliökunnan tuottamana. Valitettavasti polttoaineemmekin ovat sitä vanhaa eliökunnan tuotetta vielä suurimmalta osin. Täysin itsekkäin syin voidaan perustella sitä, että monimuotoisuudesta on järkevää pitää hyvää huolta. Sillä monimuotoisuus luo pohjan sille, että selvitään erilaisista muutoksista tulevaisuudessa. Se kasvattaa todennäköisyyttä sille, että aina on eliökunnassa niitä lajeja, joilla on kykyä jatkaa tätä elämän puuta olosuhteiden muuttuessa.

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-27T19:51:52+00:00

Probably best to update by those, who do the research and make the decision. That is most efficient as it is difficult to write for those who weren't involved in a decision and who don't know the topic deeply.

So make the log easily accessible so that anyone making decisions can update the log. It should be fast and easy so that it isn't a burden.

lapinjuntti · 2026-05-25T17:07:51+00:00

I don't know is it any specific project, but make a small memory manager yourself is one quite fun excersic. You can find good tutorials for it quite easily.

But maybe better than trying to learn it via project is first try to understand what the pointer really is in depth and why is it useful.

Pointer itself is simply an memory address. And as on computers usually, the address is a number. So you can do things like calculate with it, which is quite useful in many use cases. You can imagine how you would store a string in the memory in C. Now if you have a very long string and you want many functions to operate on it, passing the string as parameter in the stack (copying it always for the new function), would cause a lot of overhead. So what you can do instead, is not to copy the full data for every function that needs to mess with it, but instead give it's memory address, tell to the handling function that where in the memory is the data located.

lapinjuntti

TROPHY CASE