May 7 2011: The year is twenty eleven and there is evil in the world I thought we would be done with it by now but there it is. We still have slavers and pirates, organized crime and drug pushers, starving children and on and on. Pirates Really? My god its 2011. Never ask if good can win just remember every day that good cannot be defeated. Once you have remembered that good cannot be defeated ask yourself what did, I do to defeat evil today. Today I posted some word of encouragement on ted, this week my wife volunteered at the local food bank, and last month my sister in law made some micro lone on Kiva. Each of these thing produced positive emotions reactions and feelings it’s just as easy to be positive as negative. This is not about religion it’s about good and evil. I am a good person and as such everywhere I go I try and stand against the darkness. Its 2011 and people all over the world in many countries are arresting slavers and drug traffickers and pirates. I believe good can never be defeated and that as a race mankind can and should do better. And so to answer your question, not only can good win, but because it cannot be defeated it will eventually win by default. It turns out that even evil people take no joy in evil.
May 7 2011: I think that Americans have become too lazy and too complacent we no longer appreciate our right to vote as much as we should. Not only do I think we should have mandatory military service in this country but I think it should be required in order to earn the right to vote. I would love to see the ability to vote be raised to the level of a revered reward in our society rather then just being a chore you avoid.
May 6 2011: I think that it would be a really interesting social experiment to produce a global cultural moral compass for mankind. A sort of universal base line of good behavior if you took a cultural inventory of normative values for all, religions governments and societies and index them by the percentage of mankind that would find those values expectable you would really have something interesting
May 6 2011: Greetings Helen
What’s a holding company from shifting the R&D canter to China?
1. China must be seen as providing an economic or intellectual advantage to research and development groups.
2. China is often perceived in the west as being led by two separate and sometimes corrupt governments, rightly or wrongly, the party and the military seem to act at odds with each other, neither having much control over the other. This leads to corruption and the occasional disappearance of people who disagree with government policy. Whatever Chinas decisions are regarding intellectual property rights they must be seen as monolithic and consistent foreign companies will not invest talent or money where they may be lost at a bureaucrat’s whim.
Is IPR protection the main roadblock?
1. Yes china must be seen as the world leader in the protection of IPR rights if it wishes to attract foreign research and development, this is the number one thing China can do to attract research and development. Companies are motivated almost solely by profit any research that’s coopted by a government or criminal organization is an unacceptable loss of profit.
2. The secondary consideration is that any government regulation of a given field must be one stop shopping, bureaucrats and red tape are the eternal enemy of innovation. Government regulation and or interference must be kept to a minimum.
So is it time to start a new product from China, rather than throw a product to China to make people here swallow it?
1. China is more than innovative and capable of starting it’s owe new products the question is will the best minds in China stay in China or go somewhere with better IPR protections.
2. It is important to note the western companies often develop products for western markets only, and for many companies China is a secondary market that is often an afterthought. This is not malicious it is in most cases a matter of economic necessity R&D develops what a free market demands first.
May 6 2011: I always thought that Robert a Heinlein may have had things right and that warfighters and generals have a unique moral perspective which makes them better qualified to make civic judgments then many others. A General has more effective and practical management experience then many TED speakers as well. From this civilians perspective I think the general is an excellent choice for a TED speaker. Perhaps he can shed some light on DARPAS one hundred year starship project with NASA and the reasoning behind it.
“I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
Robert A. Heinlein
Apr 11 2011: I think that we should realize that the moon is the orbital equivalent of a deep water port and that the commercial exploitation of space, asteroid mining, and energy production begins there. If there is a buck a yen or a ruble in it they will come. You have to walk before you can run so I think we need to master travelling in our own solar system before we think about moving on to the next.
Apr 11 2011: The corporation as a replacement for the state, seems to be a likely scenario for the future, it is certainly one that has been foreseen buy many futurists such as Gibson. If you’re a citizen of the United States this is one of many reasons to fear our now overly conservative supreme court they are granting corporations many of the same rights as individuals. If corporations have the same rights as individuals it severely degrades the ability of government to intercede on behalf of the people. The problem with corporations as governments is that they move on economic imperatives primarily as opposed to social imparities. In many ways it would be more honest but I would like to see some other motives in the mix besides money. The same thing may be said of religion as government, your moral compass may not be the same as mine. So for me I think of government as a good referee one that hopefully keeps all the players honest. Because if you live in china you know that it’s cheaper to make tainted milk then clean milk and maybe you moral compass is not the same as mine. I think we will always need governments, whether we continue to have them is another question.
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A comment on Conversation: What if anything could the individuals and groups represented here at TED contribute to DARPAS 100 year starship study?
A comment on Conversation: Can good win?
A comment on Conversation: Let's have mandatory military service in the U.S.
A comment on Conversation: A solution for the future challenges: culture-mimicry
A comment on Conversation: Is it time for companies to establish global R&D centres in China? Is it time for "Designed in China, for global markets"?
What’s a holding company from shifting the R&D canter to China?
1. China must be seen as providing an economic or intellectual advantage to research and development groups.
2. China is often perceived in the west as being led by two separate and sometimes corrupt governments, rightly or wrongly, the party and the military seem to act at odds with each other, neither having much control over the other. This leads to corruption and the occasional disappearance of people who disagree with government policy. Whatever Chinas decisions are regarding intellectual property rights they must be seen as monolithic and consistent foreign companies will not invest talent or money where they may be lost at a bureaucrat’s whim.
Is IPR protection the main roadblock?
1. Yes china must be seen as the world leader in the protection of IPR rights if it wishes to attract foreign research and development, this is the number one thing China can do to attract research and development. Companies are motivated almost solely by profit any research that’s coopted by a government or criminal organization is an unacceptable loss of profit.
2. The secondary consideration is that any government regulation of a given field must be one stop shopping, bureaucrats and red tape are the eternal enemy of innovation. Government regulation and or interference must be kept to a minimum.
So is it time to start a new product from China, rather than throw a product to China to make people here swallow it?
1. China is more than innovative and capable of starting it’s owe new products the question is will the best minds in China stay in China or go somewhere with better IPR protections.
2. It is important to note the western companies often develop products for western markets only, and for many companies China is a secondary market that is often an afterthought. This is not malicious it is in most cases a matter of economic necessity R&D develops what a free market demands first.
A comment on Conversation: Why do civilians think we as military personnel should not speak our minds? We fight for our liberties, yet many prefer to silence us...
“I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
Robert A. Heinlein
A comment on Conversation: If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
A comment on Conversation: What's the next step in space exploration?
A comment on Conversation: The difference between civilizations and nationality?Do you think civilizations produce nationality or nationality produce civilizality?
A comment on Conversation: Sometime I feel that countries are becoming, or will be made, obsolete by commercial and organizational interests.