3 ms·
>"The best minds in Silicon Valley are preoccupied with a science fiction future they consider it their manifest destiny to build. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are
by xiaoma 9y ago
>"The best minds in Silicon Valley are preoccupied with a science fiction future they consider it their manifest destiny to build. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are racing each other to Mars. Musk gets most of the press, but Bezos now sells $1B in Amazon stock a year to fund Blue Origin. Investors have put over $8 billion into space companies over the past five years, as part of a push to export our problems here on Earth into the rest of the Solar System.
>As happy as I am to see Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos fired into space, this does not seem to be worth the collapse of representative government."
This is an extraordinarily angry and poorly reasoned piece. How exactly are Musk or Bezos causing the collapse of representative government? This kind of assertion needs to be supported in a robust way rather than tossed in as a barb.
>"Tech culture prefers to solve harder, more abstract problems that haven't been sullied by contact with reality. So they worry about how to give Mars an earth-like climate, rather than how to give Earth an earth-like climate."
Is it really that unlikely that terraforming Mars would lead to advancements than help us better understand and take care of Earth? Of all the people to pin climate change on, why would this guy pick on the founder of Solar City and Tesla? Those two companies have been doing a great deal to shift energy consumption from burning fossil fuels towards using solar power and to replace gas-based cars with efficient electric cars.
How does someone who spends his time selling a bookmarking app and harassing people on twitter feel justified in attacking those actually moving clean tech forward?
>"These big five companies operate on a global scale, and partly because they created the industries they now dominate, they enjoy a very lax regulatory regime. Everywhere outside the United States and EU, they are immune to government oversight, and within the United States the last two administrations have played them with a light touch"
This is also false. Look at the intense scrutiny Apple and its suppliers have faced in China over environmental and labor regulations, for example. In fact, it would be fair to say that the "big five" US tech companies face far more scrutiny in China than either the US or Europe.
I suspect the same is true in Russia, Japan and other regions. Consider that Japanese regulators are currently examining Apple for anti-trust action related to its iOS/iPhone/App Store empire.
- mathperson 9y agowell reasoned and well written but I am not sure I agree with the 'intense scrutiny' apple faced. to me it seemed like bad pr that was forgotten within a few months. could you perhaps elaborate on this point?
- xiaoma 9y agoIn 2011, state run media repeatedly criticized Apple in connection with a 42 page report that condemned Apple on a number of fronts. A coalition of 36 environmental groups also rated Apple last of 29 tech companies. In truth, there were serious environmental costs to the actions that Apple (and its suppliers) took in China. On the other hand, local businesses were not scrutinized nearly as closely. It could be argued the difference was due to size, but it would be surprising if protectionism played no role at all. Since that time, Apple has made tremendous efforts to improve both its labor and environmental efforts, gotten all 14 of its final assembly sites compliant with UL’s Zero Waste to Landfill validation, gotten over 90% of its energy from clean sources and has even gone so far as to make sizable investments in Chinese clean tech companies. Links related to labor disputes and strikes are harder for me to find due to all the western press on the issue but here are some related to environmental issues: http://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2016/12/09/apple-invests-in-china-wind-farms/ http://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2016/12/09/apple-in... http://www.cultofmac.com/442650/apples-environmental-efforts-still-killing-it-in-china/ http://www.cultofmac.com/442650/apples-environmental-efforts... User tracking: https://www.techinasia.com/apple-loses-court-case-cctv-calls-it-security-threat https://www.techinasia.com/apple-loses-court-case-cctv-calls... And anti-trust: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-antitrust-idUSKCN0WY4KG http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-antitrust-idUSKCN0WY... http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/china-antitrust-crackdown-foreign-profit/2014/08/11/id/588093/ http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/china-antitrust-crackdown-for... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/business/international/microsoft-china-antitrust-inquiry.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/business/international/mi... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/technology/apple-no-longer-immune-to-chinas-scrutiny-of-us-tech-firms.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/technology/apple-no-longe... I believe this is a higher level of scrutiny than Apple faces in the US or EU.