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Think of all the app developers out there who are making a living off the iPhone. Think of all the web developers out there whose audience has now increased dra

Think of all the app developers out there who are making a living off the iPhone. Think of all the web developers out there whose audience has now increased dramatically because of Facebook and iPhone getting more people to use the web. What Thiel is having a hard time with is the move to an information-centric economy. Outside of better renewable energy, we pretty much have all the bases covered for basic, comfortable human existence. It's all about the creation and dissemination of information, now.

zerostar07 15y ago
Compare that to the previous century. Where is the equivalent of the airplane, radio transmission, space travel, television, antibiotics, the Internet? Those were breakthroughs, not just incremental advances. There s never 'enough progress'. One should be an optimist though, there s innovation incubated in the life sciences
- inerte 15y ago
  Although I mostly side with Tiel on his observations, to be fair you're comparing a century to a decade. And in hindsight it is easy to tell what was a breakthrough. Remember that when computers were invented few thought that we would have them in the palms of our hands.
- jleyank 15y ago
  Hmm... I might be off by a year or two, but I think it's pretty #%!*^&% amazing that you can have a powerful computer that is a link to the world in your pocket. That was the deepest science fiction 20-30 years ago. Maybe it's due to cheap flash memory, or maybe flash memory itself. No matter, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, it would be quite nice to have alternative energy sources that were inexpensive. It would also nice to have cures for all "popular" diseases. But, compared to mucking with computers, those things cost serious money and require serious hardware. Oh, and can't be solved by "release early and release often".
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
marshallp 15y ago
Except for the little matter of dying from a heart attack or cancer. Or an asteroid impact. Or that I can't afford a my own 747, or spaceship. Peter Thiel is lamenting that we have set our sights so low.
- marknutter 15y ago
  Asteroid impacts and space travel? This is what keeps you up at night?
- icebraining 15y ago
  What about the first full face transplant ever? (http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_usa_transplant_face http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_usa_transplant_face)
blhack 15y ago
>Think of all the web developers out there whose audience has now increased dramatically because of Facebook and iPhone getting more people to use the web. Do you have any data that backs this up? This seems dramatically counter-intuitive. I don't imagine a lot of people who would otherwise not be using the internet buying iPhones. Facebook, perhaps, but not the iPhone.
- marknutter 15y ago
  Oh please, just look around you - people have their faces buried in their phones everywhere you go, and it spans all demographics. Go to any airport and count the number of people using iPads. I don't need to provide data to back this up, although I'm confident I could; it's all around us.
- chollida1 15y ago
  well for facebook..... Think about how they benefit small businesses. Now pretty much every small business I know has a facebook page. Most of the one's I'm thinking of didn't have a webpage. Now they can reach their audience with give aways and draws. More thank half of my wife's wall is company page postings. Before facebook, we'd never heard form these companies after we bought something from them because they lacked the technical sophistication or didn't think it was worth their time. Facebook small business pages have been a real boon to small businesses from my perspective. As for cell phones, it's true that I don't visit new sites due to having a cell phone, but I do visit sites much more often now that I've got a cell phone with internet. Now if I"ve got 10 free minutes I can check my espn fantasy hockey stats or read hacker news.
backprojection 15y ago
Technologically speaking, sure. I don't think we know how to build a society which provides those benefits of a basic, comfortable existence for everyone, yet.

zerostar07 15y ago

Compare that to the previous century. Where is the equivalent of the airplane, radio transmission, space travel, television, antibiotics, the Internet? Those were breakthroughs, not just incremental advances. There s never 'enough progress'. One should be an optimist though, there s innovation incubated in the life sciences

inerte 15y ago
Although I mostly side with Tiel on his observations, to be fair you're comparing a century to a decade. And in hindsight it is easy to tell what was a breakthrough. Remember that when computers were invented few thought that we would have them in the palms of our hands.
jleyank 15y ago
Hmm... I might be off by a year or two, but I think it's pretty #%!*^&% amazing that you can have a powerful computer that is a link to the world in your pocket. That was the deepest science fiction 20-30 years ago. Maybe it's due to cheap flash memory, or maybe flash memory itself. No matter, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, it would be quite nice to have alternative energy sources that were inexpensive. It would also nice to have cures for all "popular" diseases. But, compared to mucking with computers, those things cost serious money and require serious hardware. Oh, and can't be solved by "release early and release often".

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

marshallp 15y ago

Except for the little matter of dying from a heart attack or cancer. Or an asteroid impact. Or that I can't afford a my own 747, or spaceship. Peter Thiel is lamenting that we have set our sights so low.

marknutter 15y ago
Asteroid impacts and space travel? This is what keeps you up at night?
icebraining 15y ago
What about the first full face transplant ever? (http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_usa_transplant_face http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_usa_transplant_face)

blhack 15y ago

>Think of all the web developers out there whose audience has now increased dramatically because of Facebook and iPhone getting more people to use the web. Do you have any data that backs this up? This seems dramatically counter-intuitive. I don't imagine a lot of people who would otherwise not be using the internet buying iPhones. Facebook, perhaps, but not the iPhone.

marknutter 15y ago
Oh please, just look around you - people have their faces buried in their phones everywhere you go, and it spans all demographics. Go to any airport and count the number of people using iPads. I don't need to provide data to back this up, although I'm confident I could; it's all around us.
chollida1 15y ago
well for facebook..... Think about how they benefit small businesses. Now pretty much every small business I know has a facebook page. Most of the one's I'm thinking of didn't have a webpage. Now they can reach their audience with give aways and draws. More thank half of my wife's wall is company page postings. Before facebook, we'd never heard form these companies after we bought something from them because they lacked the technical sophistication or didn't think it was worth their time. Facebook small business pages have been a real boon to small businesses from my perspective. As for cell phones, it's true that I don't visit new sites due to having a cell phone, but I do visit sites much more often now that I've got a cell phone with internet. Now if I"ve got 10 free minutes I can check my espn fantasy hockey stats or read hacker news.

backprojection 15y ago

Technologically speaking, sure. I don't think we know how to build a society which provides those benefits of a basic, comfortable existence for everyone, yet.