TED Community » pat gilbert

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• A comment on Conversation: Given the rates of poverty and despair in even our most "advanced" nations and the onset of global warming, is space exploration prudent?

  6 hours ago: The solution is through technology
  
  http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html
  
  Regarding poverty if you really want to understand this situation, I recommend this book:
  
  "Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion"
  
  by P.T. Bauer of the London School of Economics
  
  Regarding global warming that is far from demonstrating causality.

• A comment on Conversation: What's your million-dollar idea to change the world?

  16 hours ago: My idea would be to reduce government by at least 50%

• A comment on Conversation: How can we bring about such a change which inculcates creativity and innovation when we are tasked with changing mindsets of Millions?

  20 hours ago: You have to change the culture but that occurs over generations. India suffers from a bureaucracy that stifles the free market.
  
  http://www.ted.com/talks/yasheng_huang.html

• A reply on Conversation: What are some realistic and creative ways to reduce wealth inequality?

  23 hours ago: Why do they strive for it?
  
  Typically the politicians creating a straw man (the upper 1%) which they will battle on your behalf in order to get elected.
  
  I recommend this book:
  
  "Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion"
  
  by P.T. Bauer of the London School of Economics

• A comment on Conversation: What are some realistic and creative ways to reduce wealth inequality?

  1 day ago: Laree I recommend this book on the subject
  
  "Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion"
  
  by P.T. Bauer of the London School of Economics

• A reply on Conversation: The removal of all patents

  1 day ago: It is a fair piece of change to go through the patent process.
  
  Guys who have many patents will tell you to see if the item sells. The reason is that all inventor types are absolutely convinced that they have the greatest idea ever so they are very secretive and go though many iterations and expenses before finding out if they have a viable product.
  
  The question ANYBODY has to ask before they start a business is:
  
  Do I have something that will sell .
  
  Until you get an answer to this it is all just mental masturbation. So why spend money on something that may not sell?
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Phil Hansen: Embrace the shake

  1 day ago: This dude is awesome and raises a very profound point.
  
  In order to create anything you have to confront the barriers. A life without barriers is a kind of hell every bit as much a hell as a life with infinite barriers.
  
  An example would be the movie "life is beautiful " Roberto Benigni creates an imaginary world, a game, in which his son can live happily despite infinite barriers.
  
  The very definition of economics is: scarce resources that have alternative uses. This has taken us from the technology of the 19th century to what we have today. But the key is the scarce resources that we confront in order to come up with a better solution.

• A reply on Conversation: Internet arguments and misunderstandings: Productive, or a waste of time?

  1 day ago: Your teacher was the very definition of a teacher

• A comment on Conversation: Can urban beehives increase food production?

  1 day ago: We must protect the bees as it is the only domesticated insect, (I think)
  
  I worked with my dad as a kid as amateur beekeepers with a few hundred hives. So I'm partial to this idea
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Internet arguments and misunderstandings: Productive, or a waste of time?

  2 days ago: I have to disagree there is very little arguing on the internet everyone is very cordial and knowledgeable.
  
  For me I learn by comparing information, information that is not compared to other information is not very useful.
  
  I learn a lot from people who would be banned from this site. This is the handicap with sites that remove posts as too provocative. A while back there was an endless thread about equality centering around a talk by Richard Wilkinson in which I learned every socialist meme imaginable about equality which to me was mind blowing that people would swallow this nonsense hook line and sinker, but they did. These were very educated people that would take me to task about things that I thought, which made me go back and say way a minute is this true or not. I might say something about Pinochet and they might come back and say well I lived in Chile and challenge me to where I would have to confirm what I was thinking.
  
  3 things
  
  One is that if you just go around regurgitating "information" you did not learn anything as the information was never compared to other information. You might say Abraham Lincoln was one of the great presidents but then someone else may say well then how come he started the war that killed more Americans than any other? Yet the rest of the world abolished slavery without a war?
  
  Two is you get to talk to people from everywhere with every perspective imaginable. That makes for an interesting opportunity to compare notes. Hell I'm not sure they are all from this planet.
  
  Third is that there is a lot of ignorance to the water we swim in, the internet provides a platform to point this out which may lead to more people's ears perking up.