"We wanted flying cars, and we got 140 characters"
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
"We wanted flying cars, and we got 140 characters"
A profile of venture capitalist Peter Thiel in the new New Yorker (yes, the New Yorker) is one of the more thought-provoking pieces I've read in a while. Here's the money paragraph:
The information age has made Thiel rich, but it has also been a disappointment to him. It hasn’t created enough jobs, and it hasn’t produced revolutionary improvements in manufacturing and productivity. The creation of virtual worlds turns out to be no substitute for advances in the physical world. “The Internet—I think it’s a net plus, but not a big one,” he said. “Apple is an innovative company, but I think it’s mostly a design innovator.” Twitter has a lot of users, but it doesn’t employ that many Americans: “Five hundred people will have job security for the next decade, but how much value does it create for the entire economy? It may not be enough to dramatically improve living standards in the U.S. over the next decade or two decades.” Facebook was, he said, “on balance positive,” because of the social disruptions it had created—it was radical enough to have been “outlawed in China.” That’s the most he will say for the celebrated era of social media.
He sort of blames the 1970s. Don't we all?
Comments (37)
After reading George Packer's article I would conclude that Peter Thiel would be diagnosed as having Asperger Syndrome as revealed by the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale.
— phillysgr8- Technology, while wonderful, appears to have separated us somewhat as humans in society. Overall I like it, but I go days only texting, facebooking and contacting people, minus my Mom, over a technology medium.
Children today text each other sitting in the same vehicle.
Handshakes, looking a man in the eye, getting the physical feel of a relationship, whether buisnees or social are all but gone.
That's the sad part.
Plus the Gov't know too much about us, too quickly, and are right there in the wings to pass silly new laws restricting us in whatever and all endeavors we choose to uptake.— Crazybrave1 - Look on the bright side. Now children can look at dirty pictures, and the government can watch us with the flying cameras. If that's not progress, what is?— Mr. Smith
- I think about technology and always come back to the overfed/under-nourished problem. We have more information at our fingertips than at any point in human history, but we seem to gain very little from it. If you think about it, this applies to how we eat, the function of the government, education, and the way we work. Maximum expenditure of effort and money, withe very little beneficial result.— jmc
- There coul dbe a VERY good case made that computers have done more to destroy America than anything else. Tech has provided a net loss in employment and has essentially removed actual human interaction between people who need to communicate.
And the worst part of all....now we get to endure Will Bunch on a more regular basis!!! Darn computers!!!!— kelprod2 - SkyNet has become self aware.— RG
- Technology has created some significant advances in medicine and science but in other areas such as IT, it has been over hyped.— chasing history
- Medical technology: Billions of lives saved. Genetically engineered crops: billions of people fed who would otherwise have starved to death. Insecticide: millions stlill die because dopes are opposed to the use of DDT.— Mr. Smith
- "But as Hoover Institution scholar Peter Schweizer reported in his book, “Throw Them All Out,” fully 71 percent of the Obama Energy Department’s grants and loans went to “individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” Collectively, these Obama cronies raised $457,834 for his campaign, and they were in turn approved for grants or loans of nearly $11.35 billion. Obama said this week it’s not the president’s job “to make a lot of money for investors.” Well, he sure seems to have made a lot of (taxpayer) money for investors in his political machine."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/forget-bain-obamas-public-equity-record-is-the-real-scandal/2012/05/24/gJQAXnXCnU_story.html— RG - "and it hasn’t produced revolutionary improvements in manufacturing and productivity" . . . . . Perhaps that's because it's making "manufacturing and productivity" obsolete. We haven't evolved this far to end up making sprockets for Mr Spacely.— montani semper liberi
- The real breakthrough in the next decade will be trying to gets Americans to reverse the sickening process of de-evolution that they embody.— Murrayman
- Looks like Murray's primordial tail is coming in nicely.— RG
- I think I just read a comment that suggested millions of people die (each year?) due to DDT being banned? I think I just read that, but I couldn't, because that would be perhaps the stupidest comment...ever. I won't even get into the presumption that monocropping feeds all. Oh look everyone its RG being Libertarian...I'm sure the articles statistical quantifications are spot on. But the main point -- politicians give money to constituents -- shocking. I'm sure it'll all change once you vote for Romney.— Murrayman
- How many people in the world would you suggest have died of Malaria that could have been saved, had DDT not been proscribed?
— Mr. Smith - Look everyone its RG -- proud to be able to freely use more than he needs.— Murrayman
Popular Posts
Search this blog:
Blog Roll
- Andrew Sullivan
- Blinq
- Blogorrhea
- Blonde Sagacity
- Free Republic
- Instapundit
- James Taranto
- ScrappleFace
- The Corner
- Buzzmachine
- Eat the Press
- Editor and Publisher
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Media Bloodhound
- Mickey Kaus
- Pressthink
- Romenesko
- The Inksniffer
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Above Average Jane
- BlankBaby
- Citizen Mom
- Keystone Blog
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- Phawker
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Philly Future
- Phillyblog
- Phillyist
- The Clog
- The Next Mayor
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Young Philly Politics
- Afro-Netizen
- All-Spin Zone
- Atrios
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- Booman Tribune
- CorrenteWire
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- iFlipFlop
- Kiko's House
- MyDD
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Rowhouse Logic
- Slacktivist
- Suburban Guerilla
- Tattered Coat
- upyernoz
- AmericaBlog
- Andy Borowitz
- BuzzFlash
- Crooks and Liars
- Cursor
- Daily Kos
- David Sirota
- Drudge Report
- Echidne of the Snakes
- Fire Dog Lake
- Glenn Greenwald
- Hullabaloo
- Jesus' General
- Jon Swift
- Josh Marshall
- Juan Cole
- Kevin Drum
- Mad Kane
- Majikthise
- Matthew Yglesias
- Oliver Willis
- Raw Story
- Swing State Project
- Talk Left
- Taylor Marsh
- TBogg
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Think Progress
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- A Citizen's Blog
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Beer Leaguer
- Dick Polman
- Phillies Nation
- Philling Station
- Shallow Center
- The 700 Level
- The Good Phight
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners: