News — At The Edge — 3/9
Both our economic and political systems are backward — Idea Famine, women’s rights, elections — because their incentives reward special interests at our collective expense.
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Big Idea Famine —
“30 years from now people will look back at the beginning of our century and wonder what we were doing and thinking about big, hard, long-term problems….Here’s what I mean….
- First, which successful company has benefited the most from basic science and technology, yet given the least back to it?…. Apple….[It] funds internal research galore, then locks it up, reportedly refusing to allow its own scientists to attend public and open research conferences….You cannot keep skimming the cream off the top, without doing some basic, open research that is widely shared….
- Second, think of all of the start-ups today that focus on thoughtless ways to do our laundry, deliver food or entertain ourselves….For example, a start-up using gene replication to make real sirloin steaks without cattle and very little water was guided into making leather to avoid problems posed by the FDA….[I]t isn’t bold…world-changing advancement to help the hungry….
- Third is government. It’s very hard to pass a smell test when the whole room stinks, as it currently does…and imagine a class of problems that will take 10 years of hard work to address, will have many blind alleys, and will see no economic return for a very long time…[and] that their solutions can only be achieved by sharing, by working together, by pooling insights and by standing on each other’s shoulders. Government labs served some of these purposes before they were closed down….
[T]he three above all have something in common: greed….[W]e live in a dog-eat-dog society that emphasizes short-term competition over long-term collaboration. We think in terms of winning, not in terms of what might be beneficial for society….
[T]he richest, most socially conscious, and most productive people in the world…are always social democracies, like Denmark and Sweden, which Americans often derogatorily called welfare states. These societies have a group mindset that puts us before me. They do not consider citizens to be customers.
When I started One Laptop per Child everybody…advised me to make it a for-profit organization….[Instead] it was a non-profit, and those who joined passed an implicit character test….[T]he MIT Media Lab was built on the idea of doing things because you could, which often resulted in solutions looking for problems…and with impunity on things considered impossible, unnecessary, silly or all of the above….
Maybe our great-grandchildren, assuming they are around, will be here because of world collaboration on the environment, peace and global prosperity…to compensate for the famine we are…creating today.” https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/issue3-negroponte
Only 6 countries give women the same work rights as men. The U.S. isn’t one of them —
“A decade ago, no country in the world treated men and women equally under the law, according to…the World Bank. Today, only six countries do… at every stage in their working lives — from applying for a job to having a child to receiving a pension…Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden….
[U.S.] score came in at 83.75, a score that has stayed flat for the past 10 years…[and] tied with Malawi, Kenya and The Bahamas….
[U.S.] received a perfect 100 in all but three categories. It earned a 75 in the category for equal pay for work of equal value…[at] 82 percent of what men earned….[A] score of 75 in the pension category, noting that the country’s laws do not ‘establish explicit pension credits for periods of childcare.’ Yet the U.S.’s lowest score by far…not guarantee 14 weeks of paid leave for women…or parental leave benefits, nor does it offer paid paternity or parental leave….
In the past decade, thirteen economies, including Belgium, South Africa, Liberia, Bolivia, Serbia and Vietnam, introduced laws mandating equal pay for equal work. Sixteen economies increased paid maternity leave to meet the 14-week minimum.
Nine countries, including Australia,, France and the United Kingdom, all introduced paid leave for either parent to take care of a child….
Middle East and North Africa improved the least…[with] average regional score of 47.37, meaning women there are given less than half the legal rights of men….
[T]he economies that saw the most improvement…introduced laws protecting against sexual harassment, discrimination in access to credit and restrictions on certain jobs, such as night shifts….[U.S.] World Bank study authors argue…missing out on massive economic opportunities.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/03/02/only-countries-give-women-same-work-rights-men-us-isnt-one-them/?utm_term=.97ad4054446e
McConnell won’t allow vote on election reform bill —
“[Asked] why he wasn’t bringing the House electoral reform bill to the Senate floor, McConnell responded…‘Because I get to decide what we vote on’….
[Bill] contains a series of voting reforms…including automatic voter registration, expansion of early voting, an endorsement of D.C. statehood and a requirement that independent commissions oversee House redistricting…[and] requires ‘dark money’ groups to disclose donors….Democrats argue that the bill will make it easier to vote and cracks down on money in politics.” https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/06/mcconnell-election-reform-bill-1207702
A nanoparticle injection is all it takes to let these mice see in infrared —
“By injecting…light-tweaking nanoparticles into a mouse’s retina…[it was] able to perceive near-infrared light — suggesting the same could be possible for us….
The human eye can only see wavelengths of light between about 430 and 770 nanometers; above that is ultraviolet and below it is infrared….All objects give off IR, increasingly so the warmer they are….
[A] molecule for optogenetic triggers that would absorb infrared light (which conveniently penetrates many tissues) and emit visible spectrum light instead.
These ‘nanoantennae’… are biocompatible and can be combined with proteins that encourage them to bind with the photoreceptive cells in our retinas…[and] now sees IR as a shade and intensity of green…exactly what happened when the team injected these molecules into the eyes of mice (such subretinal injections are already done in humans with some eye problems)….
[The] patterns projected in IR indicating a reward were reliably sought by the mice…like seeing something warm as slightly more bright (and greener) ….
[This] seemed to cause no serious problems in the retina, such as cell death or irritation…[and] mice were still able to see in IR some 10 weeks after injection…[and] this did not interfere with natural visible light vision….
[So] could be a simple, safe, and reversible way to extend human vision…beyond our present capabilities — no batteries required.” https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/28/a-nanoparticle-injection-is-all-it-takes-to-let-these-mice-see-in-infrared/
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Doc Huston
