Private prizes are very limited in their ability to induce people to meet technological challenges--especially those challenges which have not yet been met. This is because it is difficult to scrape up enough money to compensate the competitors for the time and expenses required to meet the goal.
While I don't think prizes such as the X-Prize are entirely useless, a far stronger incentive could be offered by governments.
The government, rather than taking the public's money and throwing it at scientific problems, ought to set specific goals which, when met, entitle the first achiever to profit from his (or her, or its) invention without paying taxes for a certain number of years.
A wide variety of projects could be selected, and private companies could--and probably would-- voluntarily throw their money at the solutions they deem best. With more people putting more resources towards these achievements, they could be reached faster, with less burden on the public.
I've got a Sony LaserDisc player, and the Star Wars Trilogy Definitive Collection is a regularly listed item on eBay. I'll probably pick up a copy there and convert it to DVD using my PC, the same as I've done to Song of the South, The African Queen, Schindler's List, Freaks and many other titles that have not yet made it (and may never make it) to DVD.
Of course, if someone has a link to a.torrent of this, I'd love to know where it is. I should be able to download it legally, since I already own the VHS tapes, right?
Mars...The Australia of the 22nd Century
on
One-Way Ticket to Mars?
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· Score: 5, Informative
Paul Davies isn't the first person to suggest leaving astronauts on Mars. I doubt that Henry Spencer is the first, either, but he did suggest it back in 1997, in an article he wrote for Wired magazine.
Also in that magazine, just last September, a convict volunteered for the trip, and suggested that others in his position might also be suitable and willing to make the trip.
Slashdot Mirror
And people are bitching about outsourcing now?
I wonder which politicians will take the heat for this one...
While I don't think prizes such as the X-Prize are entirely useless, a far stronger incentive could be offered by governments.
The government, rather than taking the public's money and throwing it at scientific problems, ought to set specific goals which, when met, entitle the first achiever to profit from his (or her, or its) invention without paying taxes for a certain number of years.
A wide variety of projects could be selected, and private companies could--and probably would-- voluntarily throw their money at the solutions they deem best. With more people putting more resources towards these achievements, they could be reached faster, with less burden on the public.
Of course, if someone has a link to a .torrent of this, I'd love to know where it is. I should be able to download it legally, since I already own the VHS tapes, right?
Also in that magazine, just last September, a convict volunteered for the trip, and suggested that others in his position might also be suitable and willing to make the trip.