X-Message-Number: 20858
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 22:58:46 -0500 (EST)
From: Dan Hitt <>
Subject: pace of progress

Hi All,

Measuring progress can be tricky---for example it is true, as James S
notes, that we have an increasing number of patents.  On the other
hand, this also includes software and business-method patents which
retard progress (http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/index.en.html).  So
part of the increase in patents has to do with the increasingly
litigious nature of society.  (It also includes `machine-generated'
patents that firms such as Incyte Pharmaceuticals use in gene search.)

On the other hand, having computers that are smaller, faster, cheaper,
and more reliable really is progress, and really does help promote our
survival, whether or not any new physics is involved.  And it's a
result of some genuine cleverness and a lot of hard work on the part
of the engineers who lay out all those gates.

I think the question comes down to what can we do to promote progress
in the cause which we think is most important?  Make that, what can i
personally do to promote progress in the cause (survival of humans)
which i think is most important?

Each person's path will be different, but the work that Saul Kent and
Bill Falloon are doing with the LEF, and the work done at CI and Alcor
can serve as good examples.  Ralph M's work in trying to build a
bridge to nanotech is another good example.

Signing up is one step everybody can take, and for those signed up, we
need to take whatever second steps (including figuring out just what
to do) to make progress happen.  We'll be revived---if we make it
happen.

dan

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