New Concept?

[Mega]

I think its not a new concept, i recall the "Brain drain" of the 1970's when Our F1 drivers, our actors, our pop starts & other professionals simply "Did a runner". Much as Old Labour did to slag them off or take their assets.....they found it near impossable to stop the flow.

Union power (& to a degree goverment power) was replaced by "Professional power". With the internet its now possable to push that even further..........in the years ahead i can see the yonger gen saying "F*ck you!......you ran up these debts, F*ck off if you think we paying them!"

Yes, a Mega devaluation & high inflation, but that very well what starts a new "Brain drain".

Mike

[sunpearl71]

Re: New Concept?

A very interesting talk. Thanks for posting Mega.

[RebbePete]

Re: New Concept?

What a naive bunch of crap from a cloistered techie who needs to get out into the real world.

In some sense, he represents a different sort of 1% - the technocrats. I can, in some sense, poke my fingers at them and laugh, because I belong to their club. Highly educated, developing high tech...

It's still a naive bunch of crap. "Telepresence?" Mars colony? Good luck with that. Maybe I'll get to see that before I die (I'm in my late 50's), but these things always take longer than you think. EJ has written about that, but I also have personal experience as a developer and high-tech manager. Just because a highly-educated, intelligent and experienced professional can get something to work in the lab with lots of effort, certainly doesn't mean it's ready for prime time.

California is coming apart at the seams, people are "exiting" from California because local government is going down in flames. Our education system is third world, and in the economic troubles that are knocking at our door, we'll see less utilization of technology by the masses, not more, just because they can't afford it. In that kind of environment, we'll need real solutions to real problems. They'll be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. We'll need smart people to figure out solutions.

[Forrest]

Re: New Concept?

Do they need to be 'smart' or common sense-able?

Living in California is admittedly weird...but it's always been this way. People live on dreams, and hand-outs from the government, while the poor move here to better their lot, and end up working under better conditions and pay than they fled in their own country working as servants to other, richer immigrants that have bought out the exiting middle class. They do in time become the next generation's middle class. I've seen three immigration waves just in my own life here.

The state will crash financially in due time, then re-structure, and begin again. We are a state of immigrants in a nation of immigrants with our prime location as our main raison d'etre. We will survive.

And with the current communications capacity, the brain drain will be less noticeable than before. As for our education problem, that is a deliberate dumbing down of the debt slaves by the powers that be...which is why education will re-locate to the internet, providing better information at lower cost.

The brain drain has been noticeable for some time, but not shattering to California. Importing high tech is not as hard as importing high tech jobs...which go to the brilliant and the brave youngsters willing to move on to the next new tech valley.

I agree with you on the Mars colony...My dad worked on the Apollos to the Space Shuttle to the Space station, and we're hardly any further along than when he retired twenty years before his death last year because there is not a need yet for us to be off-planet colonising. The Floating City idea has merit, though...it's been done before quite successfully, and by non-technical societies. If all the new engineers and techies want to live in that brave new world, so be it. We don't need the high concentration of brain power so much as we need the end product.

As for less tech in California...that is an odd idea, when it is the government that needs us to remain under their persuasive touch. The powers that be will make sure that the cell phones and I-pads, or whatever, remain up to date...just so they can continue to propagandize us. Why else have the Banks set up all of Africa with a cell-phone banking system, if not to keep all the very poor under tight control?