That is true for any discovery after the stone hand ax.
A "true" discovery that can be ascribed to one person 100% instead of to a network of people working jointly in space and time (the dead are involved too!) needs that person to work without using knowledge as well as any tools created by others (in space as well as in time).
Humanity is more like a brain - the secret of our success is in the connections between us (again, in space as well as in time).
My own conclusion, but I found this in support:
https://youtu.be/jaoQh6BoH3c ("Henrich is professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.")
> The number of individuals who know how to make a can of Coke is zero. The number of individual nations that could produce a can of Coke is zero. ... Invention and creation is something we are all in together. Modern tool chains are so long and complex that they bind us into one people and one planet. They are not only chains of tools, they are also chains of minds: local and foreign, ancient and modern, living and dead — the result of disparate invention and intelligence distributed over time and space.
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Same in business. Each time you hear about an extremely well-paid executive or a "self-made(!!?) billionaire" remind yourself that those people's main "accomplishment" is to live today. How much of the network effects (of the human network in space and in time(!)) does one person "deserve"?
I would tell those "self-made" people complaining about taxation that if they go into the deep forest and stop using the human network - which is everybody else (let's even give them access to the dead people's achievements in the form of vast knowledge) - they can keep 100% of the grass and mud huts they manage to create.
Humanities wealth and more important its ability to create more of it is almost all network effects. If all the people alive would work a) in isolation and b) without anything they got from previous generations, what would we accomplish?
Einstein was a genius, so was Newton. What would they have accomplished a) without the exchange with their peers (network in space), b) without building on prior knowledge (network in time)?
So, who deserves that Nobel Prize? That billion dollar empire?
I don't mind any of those existing - I'm not an "evil communist". I do mind when people get a bit too excited about "deserving" and "stealing from me" (taxes). Relax and remember that you are one lucky bastard, able to benefit from network effects that you did next to nothing to help create (because most of it was and is created by everybody else).
Hey, thanks for writing all that out. I shared your comment with my family and it really made a positive difference in a long-standing disagreement we’ve had. I hope you continue to post your thoughts here.
A "true" discovery that can be ascribed to one person 100% instead of to a network of people working jointly in space and time (the dead are involved too!) needs that person to work without using knowledge as well as any tools created by others (in space as well as in time).
Humanity is more like a brain - the secret of our success is in the connections between us (again, in space as well as in time).
My own conclusion, but I found this in support: https://youtu.be/jaoQh6BoH3c ("Henrich is professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.")
I also recommend this - and please ignore which concrete product was more or less randomly chosen, it does no matter: "What Coke Contains" - https://medium.com/@kevin_ashton/what-coke-contains-221d4499...
> The number of individuals who know how to make a can of Coke is zero. The number of individual nations that could produce a can of Coke is zero. ... Invention and creation is something we are all in together. Modern tool chains are so long and complex that they bind us into one people and one planet. They are not only chains of tools, they are also chains of minds: local and foreign, ancient and modern, living and dead — the result of disparate invention and intelligence distributed over time and space.
----
Same in business. Each time you hear about an extremely well-paid executive or a "self-made(!!?) billionaire" remind yourself that those people's main "accomplishment" is to live today. How much of the network effects (of the human network in space and in time(!)) does one person "deserve"?
I would tell those "self-made" people complaining about taxation that if they go into the deep forest and stop using the human network - which is everybody else (let's even give them access to the dead people's achievements in the form of vast knowledge) - they can keep 100% of the grass and mud huts they manage to create.
Humanities wealth and more important its ability to create more of it is almost all network effects. If all the people alive would work a) in isolation and b) without anything they got from previous generations, what would we accomplish?
Einstein was a genius, so was Newton. What would they have accomplished a) without the exchange with their peers (network in space), b) without building on prior knowledge (network in time)?
So, who deserves that Nobel Prize? That billion dollar empire?
I don't mind any of those existing - I'm not an "evil communist". I do mind when people get a bit too excited about "deserving" and "stealing from me" (taxes). Relax and remember that you are one lucky bastard, able to benefit from network effects that you did next to nothing to help create (because most of it was and is created by everybody else).
My favorite 5s of Clint Eastwood where he summarizes it for me: https://youtu.be/OuvEJ-U1UDc