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Bill Gates's New Version of the Einstein Letter
dcblogs writes "In 1939, Albert Einstein sent 'F.D. Roosevelt, President of the United States,' a letter with a warning about Germany's interest in a new type of energy with potential for use as a powerful bomb. The letter also outlined the competitive threat posed by Germany and steps for improving US research efforts. Last week, Bill Gates, along with GE's CEO and others, met with President Obama to deliver their own message: that of the top 30 companies in the world working on alternative energy, only four are in the US. Similar to Einstein's point and recommendations, Gates and his allies are asking the US to view the alternative energy push as a competitive threat posed by other nations, particularly China, which may be doing a better job in bringing its engineering talent and money to bear on this problem."
The free market is notoriously short sighted. This is one of the areas governments are needed.
Gates himself is under no such illusion, only the writer of the article. But Gates does know a thing or two about how to motivate politicians. And he *certainly* knows the tech industry (you know, the people who will have to develop this technology). Combine that with his well-respected reputation for philanthropy and you could have a lot worse advocates on your side for something like this than Mr. Gates. He may have a nasty reputation on /., but to the general public there are very few leaders in technology that command the kind of instant respect and name-recognition that he does.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Ah, I see you actually know the history!
Leo Szilard may well have been the greatest mind of the 20th century. He was so damn smart most people never heard of him! And he wasn't severely mentally ill, either - the other thinkers of his time (Tesla, for example) were pretty much bonkers.
First: Einstein's contribution to the letter was mainly signing it - it was really authored by Leó Szilárd with contributions from Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner.
Second: The atomic bomb is a weapon that could only be created by a government and should only be used by a government and is not be provided to others.
Energy technology can be produced by private industry, used by private industry, and will be traded on the free market to everyone. Even if a Chinese company develops the technology, we (and others) will be able to purchase it and benefit from it. On the other hand, the atomic bomb was not going to be sold to China (or Japan, for that matter, who was ruthlessly occupying China).
One could argue that the US government "should play its part" in solving the global externality of greenhouse gas emission by throwing tax dollars at researchers, but that is a different issue.
The problem I have with this is old Bill could pay for this with the change from his couch but what he wants is a "Goldman Sachs" where if it doesn't work YOU pay, and if it does HE profits! Basically we are talking another scam, oh and for those talking Kyoto? Look up "carbon credit scam" and see how many are already scamming crap and trade, and then think how much worse it would be if it went nationwide. Caps are fine, crap and trade is a scam.
If he is soooo concerned, why don't he show his patriotism and put his money where his mouth is? Oh right, it's about blowing other people's money, and raking the profits in for yourself. Fuck off Billy, you may have been a good businessman when it came to selling Windows, but you always were a greedy little bastard and apparently still are.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I think the real truth is that he only met Warren Buffet recently.
Warren Buffet is as rich as Bill Gates but is a genuinely nice (and humble) guy. He lives in a normal house and drives a normal car (until it wears out!)
OK, he owns a Gulfstream jet, but let's not hold that against him, he's the biggest philanthropist in history and he's had a big influence on BIll Gates over the last decade.
No sig today...
Did you ever notice how many of our great physicists were running from the Nazis? Einstein, Szilard, Teller, probably dozens of lesser scientists. I've always wondered: If the Nazis would have succeeded in getting those scientists, would we have developed the bomb? Was it inevitable, or did it take getting all those super minds in the right place at the right time?
We know that despite what was said during the Manhattan project that the Nazis were far enough behind on Atomic research they may have never built a working bomb, and Japan was wasting time looking at "death rays". The only real advantage the Nazis had by the end was rockets (which we pulled a brain drain thanks to Operation Paperclip) so it always makes me wonder how much different our world would have been if the NSDAP had never existed.
As for TFA the ONLY way I would go for it is if ALL patents created using tax dollars belong to We, The People. But knowing the way business "works" here in the USA today they more likely want mama government to take all the risks, while they take all the spoils. Yeah, no thanks.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
In 1994, Bill Gates gave an interview to Playboy. He stated then that he was going to give away his money. In it he says:
PLAYBOY: Does your net worth of multi-billions, despite the fact that it's mostly in stock and the value varies daily, boggle your mind?
GATES: It's a ridiculous number. But remember, 95 percent of it I'm just going to give away. [Smiles] Don't tell people to write me letters. I'm saving that for when I'm in my 50s. It's a lot to give away and it's going to take time.
PLAYBOY: Where will you donate it?
GATES: To charitable things, scientific things. I don't believe in burdening any children I might have with that. They'll have enough. They'll be comfortable.
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/billgates/l/blbillgatesint5.htm