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Great article, its amazing how back in the days so many aristocrats and rich people were actually conquering the world, breaking the limits and sponsoring life
by funkyy 10y ago
Great article, its amazing how back in the days so many aristocrats and rich people were actually conquering the world, breaking the limits and sponsoring life saving experiments.
It was much different than we have today - get as much money, give %% of them to charity, hands clean.
- morgante 10y agoPlenty of modern innovation and experiments are funded by billionaires today. Most relevant to HN, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Elon Musk are all ready examples.
- funkyy 10y agoWell not many of them get their hands dirty though, do they? Helping with money is one thing, but actually as a person diving in to the project and work on it without dozens of cameras and security guards is different thing.
- morgante 10y agoAll evidence points to the people I mentioned getting deeply engaged in many of the experiments they're funding. Friends who work at Space X have confirmed that Elon at least is intimately involved in the projects.
- funkyy 10y agoI agree, but that is just handful of them, isnt it?
- morgante 10y agoPerhaps, but I think there's only ever been a few.
- capote 10y agoIt's always just been a handful. That goes for any good-doers of the world. Out of a pool of X people who are fortunate enough to have the capacity to do Y good thing, only a handful actually do it. Works well enough.
- fizx 10y agoHistory tends to distort things. The present is an era. The 1990's is an era. The 1800's is a era. The renaissance is an era. The stone age is an era. Of course accomplishments per era could decrease when we're judging the last few years against much larger time spans of the past.
- forgotpwagain 10y agoGetting one's hands dirty at a technical level is incredibly difficult. Bill Gates's training and experience is in computer science and business; to develop the background needed to understand the details of treatment for Malaria, HIV/AIDS, etc would take many many years of intense, focused effort. Someone like Bill Gates could hire someone with the technical expertise while spending his own time on more productive things that are likely to yield more good for the world--networking with other billionaires to convince them to donate money, working to manage the overall structure of the B&M Gates Foundation, etc. Complex systems are complex. 200 years ago, the amount that we knew was significantly smaller; one could get to the edge of human knowledge with just a few years of intense work. In contrast, it takes significantly longer to get to a level of expertise at which one can productively contribute.
- cpncrunch 10y ago>actually conquering the world, breaking the limits and sponsoring life saving experiments. Richard Branson and Elon Musk are doing that today.
- throwaway_exer 10y agoWell ... Richard Branson sponsored balloon flights primarily as a cheap form of SEO for his young companies. He rode as a passenger with a qualified pilot.
- leonroy 10y agoBranson has had more than one near death experience over his 30 years of ballooning. He might be a great marketeer but don't confuse him for someone who lets others do the crazy stuff. See here for just one of many stories. His biography has more than a few: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/04/world/2-trans-atlantic-balloonists-saved-after-jump-into-sea-off-scotland.html http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/04/world/2-trans-atlantic-bal...