How about those guys writing virus software targeting Windows operating systems? I bet they’re making a ton of money as they make the world a better place…
Lucas will be thinking about that for a long time. It seems that most inventions that make the inventor money are geared to either depravity or destruction. Any benefit to the larger society is by happenstance.
OTOH, Dr Jonas Salk made a small pile (but a pile nonetheless), off his polio vaccine, or rather the fame from it. If you youngsters are too fresh to remember, polio was a scourge. I remember trips to visit classmates in iron lungs and kids with polio leg braces, and collecting bottles to help pay for iron lung time. God Bless Dr Salk. I believe we should abandon many of the current holidays and introduce one on the day Dr Salk announced the vaccine was effective. From Wiki:
“Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation’s history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis,1 with most of the victims children. The “public reaction was to a plague”, said historian William O’Neill. “Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned.” According to a 2009 PBS documentary, “Apart from the atomic bomb, America’s greatest fear was polio.”2 As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt was the world’s most recognized victim of the disease and founded the organization that would fund the development of a vaccine."
It was VJ Day, VE Day, the 4th of July and Christmas all rolled into one when the announcement came.
THERE is your hero. He did not patent the vaccine. He could have been a billionaire but that was not his personality. He made a modest fortune from his books and further research grants and from heading his foundation.
Let’s not forget this: Mobius invented the Mobius strip. He didn’t make a penny off it, and it did the world no harm and no good. That proves some point or other. Or disproves it. Or not.
Sparky Schulz died a very wealthy man. It’s true that MOST of the big money came from merchandising rather than directly from his earnings writing and drawing Peanuts, but I see no harm in that.
Actually, that one caused riots. It put thousands of weavers out of work, and destroyed the livelihood of entire communities. Starvation, vagabondage, and mass migration to the already-overpopulated cities. Still, it gave us the terms “sabotage” and “Luddite”, so it wasn’t a total loss…
As you say. The people getting the new jobs were not the people who lost the old jobs. And the new jobs were fewer, more poorly paid, and more dangerous (machines need to be maintained, and the tiny hands and arms of children were ever so well suited for reaching into the works, often while the machine-looms were still in operation).
Automation (like out-sourcing) is a double-edged sword, and is only REALLY of benefit to the people who own the factories. The Future that automation promised us was one where the masses would be free from drudgery, and would enjoy unlimited leisure time while the robots did the work. The Future that was delivered to us is not of leisure but of unemployment.
The missing M. Smokey over 12 years ago
I made a profit as a mafia courier in Vegas. I spent most of it on booze and girls. The rest I squandered.
Ida No over 12 years ago
How about those guys writing virus software targeting Windows operating systems? I bet they’re making a ton of money as they make the world a better place…
Peabody-Martini over 12 years ago
Lucas will be thinking about that for a long time. It seems that most inventions that make the inventor money are geared to either depravity or destruction. Any benefit to the larger society is by happenstance.
Sisyphos over 12 years ago
Keep thinking, Lucas, while Mona goes home on her own.
randayn over 12 years ago
Steve Jobs got rich, and his positive impact on the world will be felt for years to come.
hawgowar over 12 years ago
Jobs was as big a thief as Gates.
OTOH, Dr Jonas Salk made a small pile (but a pile nonetheless), off his polio vaccine, or rather the fame from it. If you youngsters are too fresh to remember, polio was a scourge. I remember trips to visit classmates in iron lungs and kids with polio leg braces, and collecting bottles to help pay for iron lung time. God Bless Dr Salk. I believe we should abandon many of the current holidays and introduce one on the day Dr Salk announced the vaccine was effective. From Wiki:
“Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation’s history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis,1 with most of the victims children. The “public reaction was to a plague”, said historian William O’Neill. “Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned.” According to a 2009 PBS documentary, “Apart from the atomic bomb, America’s greatest fear was polio.”2 As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt was the world’s most recognized victim of the disease and founded the organization that would fund the development of a vaccine."
It was VJ Day, VE Day, the 4th of July and Christmas all rolled into one when the announcement came.
THERE is your hero. He did not patent the vaccine. He could have been a billionaire but that was not his personality. He made a modest fortune from his books and further research grants and from heading his foundation.
Ray_C over 12 years ago
Let’s not forget this: Mobius invented the Mobius strip. He didn’t make a penny off it, and it did the world no harm and no good. That proves some point or other. Or disproves it. Or not.
Ida No over 12 years ago
NO FAIR!!! THIS IS CHEATING!!! I want to see Mona’s mask for Michael’s party!!!
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
Sparky Schulz died a very wealthy man. It’s true that MOST of the big money came from merchandising rather than directly from his earnings writing and drawing Peanuts, but I see no harm in that.
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
“machine woven clothing”
Actually, that one caused riots. It put thousands of weavers out of work, and destroyed the livelihood of entire communities. Starvation, vagabondage, and mass migration to the already-overpopulated cities. Still, it gave us the terms “sabotage” and “Luddite”, so it wasn’t a total loss…
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
As you say. The people getting the new jobs were not the people who lost the old jobs. And the new jobs were fewer, more poorly paid, and more dangerous (machines need to be maintained, and the tiny hands and arms of children were ever so well suited for reaching into the works, often while the machine-looms were still in operation).
Automation (like out-sourcing) is a double-edged sword, and is only REALLY of benefit to the people who own the factories. The Future that automation promised us was one where the masses would be free from drudgery, and would enjoy unlimited leisure time while the robots did the work. The Future that was delivered to us is not of leisure but of unemployment.
Have you read “Player Piano”, by Vonnegut?