Lou Reed and Jonh Cale: Work
Capitalism 101: Market Think
“Mixed Drive for Autovehicles.”
“Be it known that I, Henri Pieper, a subject of the King of Belgium, residing at 18 Rue des Bayards, in Liege, Belgium, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mixed Drives for Autovehicles…The invention…comprises an internal combustion or similar engine, a dynamo motor direct connected therewith, and a storage battery or accumulator in circuit with the dynamo motor, these elements being cooperatively related so that the dynamo motor may be run as a motor by the electrical energy stored in the accumulator to start the engine or to furnish a portion of the power delivered by the set, or may be run as a generator by the engine, when the power of the latter is in excess of that demanded of the set, and caused to store energy in the accumulator.”Henri Pieper, quoted in Hybrid Cars, March 1, 2009
This is one of those choice little fragments of information that should become the set piece for any introductory study of capitalist economics. It’s so rich it’s hard to figure out what to say. It’s a good way to start deflating the myth of capitalist innovation and the market.
The hybrid car is still not common a hundred years after it was patented because there was so little profit it. It didn’t matter if it was or was not a good idea, a practical idea, or even an ingenious idea, or a visionary idea. The market takes up the innovation only money can be made.
The market doesn’t drive innovation, it drives profitable innovation. That’s why the idea that the market can fix the energy problem, to cite only one example, is so misleading. As the president makes clear, the government has to push and nudge and often shove the market to make it move in any reasonable direction.
Wikipedia Wins!
Shelley Bernstein, chief of technology at the Brooklyn Museum, told a story about how social networking can benefit a cultural institution. The museum posted some images from its collection on The Commons, a space on the photo-sharing site Flickr dedicated to public photo collections. Not much happened at first, she said, and the museum was about to abandon the experiment until a group of devoted Flickr users began to make use of the material. One was so taken by the museum’s photos of the 1893 Chicago Exposition that he started adding tags to identify different buildings. Like a good curator or archivist, he even provided sources. “Now we see people who have a real investment in these materials looking at them and helping us,” Ms. Bernstein said.
Switch-Tasking and Twittering Into the Future at Library and Museum Meeting, Jennifer Howard, March 2, 2009
I have to admit that despite my love of technology I’m skeptical about certain trends. There’s a fine line between innovation and planned obsolescence. Everyone likes a new shiny toy but not every new toy is worth the cost. I get tired, too, of the bias against Wikipedia, which is too often based in ignorance.
I might change my mind, but to me Twitter embodies the senseless pursuit of change and fun. It’s the very definition of tedious and silly, the pet-rock of communication. Nero tweats while Rome burns. Wikipedia in particular, and wikis in general, though, are innovations that continue to drive substantive change.
Collaborative writing technologies are going to transform learning in ways that are almost impossible to predict. I think the only certainty is that these changes are all going to recall the Wikipedia model of a organic, living body of knowledge created through conversation and debate. Twitter can’t touch that.
Diana Krall: The Look of Love