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by codelion 5559 days ago
I do not agree with the author's conclusion that the model of industrial research (MS,HP IBM etc) is broken. We need places in industry to do basic reserach, if everyone was focuses on engineering or product based research (Apple, Google) it is not good for the over all ecosystem. Many inventions are made by pure serendipity we need to give the brilliant minds the freedom to pursue their research based on curiosity and interest.
1 comments
danssig 5559 days ago
We do need to pursue it, but a short-term oriented market based system just can't do it. There is too much financial risk in the kind of research that needs to be done. And if you do ever manage to produce anything, everyone else can just copy it. So the best strategy in the market will always be to not spend anything on research and just steal from those who do.
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khafra 5558 days ago
Is there a solution to this multiplayer prisoner's dilemma/coordination problem besides government-run research labs? I've never heard one.
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orborde 5558 days ago
Patents are the solution our society seems to have chosen. I don't know whether they're "the" solution.
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zwieback 5558 days ago
Yes and no. HP, for example, invests a lot of R&D money in the core businesses and not everyone can just copy what we do and even though quarterly reports rule there are 5 year plans for things other than off-the-shelf consumer products. On the other hand, the D of R&D is heavily emphasized and HP Labs has been struggling to be relevant to the business units as long as I can remember. The question for blue chips is whether it's cheaper to fund your own research or wait until something is mature to the point where you can buy or license it. Much as it dismays me sometimes, it really isn't such an unreasonable strategy for the average stockholder who owns us.
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olalonde 5558 days ago
> but a short-term oriented market based system just can't do it

How can you know for sure? There is no such thing as a free market system in the United States. The incentive for private research is very low when all companies have to do is wait for subsidized research coming out of universities.

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