Slashdot Mirror
China vs U.S. in an 'Internet Race'
avatar4d writes to mention an article on CIO about a new 'space race' on the internet between China and the U.S.. China is currently hard at work at what is being called the 'Chinese Next Generation Internet' (CNGI). With plans to unveil the project at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the network is part of a plan to leap ahead of the United States in innovation and technology. From the article: "The strategy, outlined in China's latest five-year plan, calls for the country to transition its economy from one based almost entirely on manufacturing to one that produces its own scientific and technological breakthroughs — using a new and improved version of today's dominant innovation platform, the Internet. 'CNGI is the culmination of this revolutionary plan' to turn China into the world's innovation capital, says Wu Hequan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the chairman of the CNGI Expert Committee, the group overseeing the project. 'We will use it as a way to break through and be competitive in the global economic market.'"
I hear you won't be able to say anything bad about the Chinese government on this new internet; however you can get quite a deal on a Rolex and other brand name items...
Sounds great, for them at least, doesn't it? Do some basic research. Get ahead of the Americans. So you can imagine the mental double-take at this tidbit from the same article:
WHAT? China's greatest minds put together a launch and re-entry vehicle, and "officials" load it with almost 500 pounds of seeds so that they will magically become superplants? WTF? Did someone in China not get the memo that their former occupiers are not *really* developing giant robots, and that Little Shop of Horrors is a work of fiction, not a battle plan?
The article claims that China will be a country that "produces its own scientific and technological breakthroughs". Sending a truckload of seeds to come back as food for the Fantastic Four sounds more like a continuation of the tradition that brought us tiger penis, rhinoceros horn, and bear bile therapies. And here I was, worried we were losing our edge.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
1) Complain about US falling behind
2) blame Christian Fundamentalists and Bush
3) ????
4) Profit!!!
then get off your butt, turn off the TV and get inventing.
The only way to succeed is to build success yourself.
With plans to unveil the project at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the network is part of a plan to leap ahead of the United States in innovation and technology.
Given that ours is made of tubes, it can't be hard to come up with something better.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Here in the States, tech isn't government-mandated and government-controlled, we don't fix our currency rate, and, above all else, it's possible to become very, very, VERY rich if you're successful in tech.
You can also grow very very very rich in china too. It a different game but the essentials are the same. Connections, hard work, a bit of luck, a few bribes, and exploiting those below you. Same in the US as in China. There are apartments in beijing with a lease price of 500,000+ yuan (~90,000+ US) per mo. It's a sign of wealth when you have such sky high realistate.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
The whole idea of "race" and needing decades of experience to get in front is very archaic. You don't need to follow the full technological evolution to get there.
Besides.... China has an amazing history of technological superiority over the last couple of thousand years or so, with only the last 100 or so years (a mere 5%) being a "glitch".
Engineering is the art of compromise.
So, China wants a large population of smart people, trained and able to ask fundamental questions, who won't question Party Orthodoxy.
Good luck.
One of two things will happen: Another cultural revolution, or the overthrow of the regime.
Given that the PRC is a mature fascist state, I know where my money is.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Now we'll start seeing "Made in China" stickers on web sites.
This Post Made in China
do {print "Mini-Geek Rules!\n";}
until ($TheEndOfTheWorld);
China has historically been competing with the West, at various levels throughout history and national inferiority complex notwithstanding. During the 70's and the 80's, one of the most popular slogans was "Surpass England, Pursue America". Its "Four Modernizations" and various manifestations of five-year plans are simply more of the same.
It is interesting that China would do anything to give the impression that it is an advanced, highly evolved civilization, while everyone else notices cracks at the seams. The comment about space-born seeds having higher mineral and vitamin content would have been hilarious had they not been so astonishingly revealing about their collective peasant mentality.
So, er, who's gonna make stuff? Oh, wait, that means that all the western nations who's economies are moving ever closer to being entirely reliant on intellectual property with a real value of nil and are banking on the force of law and international treaties to bouy their economies up whilst shifting the manufacture of real goods to China will have to start making stuff themselves again.
Right now China has got us all over a barrel because they're where we get the majority of our goods, why would they fritter it all away moving to an economic model like ours?
FGD 135
China and the USA are behind in the broadband race; each have to catch up with Sweden.
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
It's nice to know that people's view of China haven't changed in 50 years. US Education system is doing it's normal bang up job.
Before you laugh too heavily about China's "space seeds," you might want to remember that most American believe:
1. The earth was created in 7 days
2. That god created people "as is"
3. Evolution is a myth
You see America can trump China in ignorance everytime.
But let's not also forget:
1. all the capital investment going into China - China leads the world in foreign investment.
2. the trade deficit - the US imports more goods from China then we export.
3. China has HUGE cash reserves, meanwhile the US is running a 6 trillion dollar deficit which will only get larger thanks to medicare and social security benefits, the war in iraq.
4. almost all electronics and manufacturing is done in china.
5. china's population - a sellers wet dream. the us' market dominance is fading as more and more chinese have disposable income.
Kudos to the morons who aren't paying attention.
When you look at the four thousand years of Chinese history, it can't help but scream one clear message, and that is the message of repeated lost opportunities due to their obsession with preserving the established order at all cost. That is why they are trying to create their own, closed "internet" and that is also why the US is so obsessed with controlling what is really a global resource as well. I think that this obsession with control will profoundly hurt bith nations, although since China's obsession is so much more total and clueless, I think that the damage done to China's future in the long run will be greater, if it is expressed as a percentage of "what might have been". However, I don't think that we in the US should deceive ourselves, in both cases, the result is tragic. Corporations (and their desire to make a quick and easy buck at the expense of the American consumer and real innovation), control US Internet policy almost as profoundly as the China's obsession with preventing any kind of real change controls theirs. Are the two really that different? I don't think that they are... they are two sides of the same coin.. "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever" George Orwell --from Nineteen Eighty-Four
Shortly after Iraq being overthrown, I remember one of Saddam's top guys, who had been captured, being interviewed, and saying something like "America didn't win because of its culture or anything like that. It just won because of its technical superiority."
I watched this, shaking my head, and thinking, "They will never get it. You could try to explain to this guy, until you're blue in the face, that America's 'technical superiority' DERIVES from its culture -- its freedom to innovate, diversity of ideas, etc -- but you'd just be wasting your breath."
Of course, that's not to say someone else couldn't create a culture that is even MORE dynamic, inquisitive, vibrant, etc. If THAT happened, I would worry about being surpassed. Otherwise, not so much.
- Alaska Jack