[OT] [I mean totally OT] Re: What can you "new"

[Georg Wrede]

Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Georg Wrede wrote:

....
>> How long does it currently take the world's most powerful 
>> nation, from decision to deployment, to make a jet fighter? And these 
>> guys already have the factories, infrastructure, CAD programs, 
>> expertise, experience, clout, etc.
> 
> Sorry for the long quote, I quoted this in full because I liked it this 
> much. It's the best post I've read in a long time.

Cool!

> One thing I'd like to emphasize is that building complex technology is 
> hard for a small core of people because it's hard to get specialized in 
> multiple things at once. Think of how long it takes to become expert in 
> any serious domain... I'm not sure most of us could get up-to-speed in 
> more than a couple major technologies fast enough to also use them 
> creatively.

For the society, this is the problem with longevity. Exteding peoples' 
lives should really extend their productive years, which means keeping 
the brain young and "spongy", sucking info and applying it effortlessly. 
Just adding retirement years is a burden no nation can soon afford to 
even try.

> We benefit of many generations who worked before us and created 
> technology. Even before the exponential elbow of recent times, there was 
> plenty of technology that we afforded to take for granted.

Yes. It takes much thinking to even begin to appreciate how much we've 
got from earlier generations. It's all too easy to say that there was 
nothing we need before the telegraph and the steam engine.