Obviously patents didn't help, no?
Myhrvold would
argue that this is because there wasn't a value on patents. He's quite
specifically trying to change the world by buying patents he thinks are cheap
and later licensing or selling them to the highest bidder.
n
I do think
it's interesting that Bell labs & co who were quite specifically trying to
invent for money didn't come up with the idea of a patent market.
So the question is how to stimulate good
research that seeks
for a healthier life and clean nature regardless of
patent
system.
Partly agreed. Though I'm not sure that you can
separate out that research so easily. My question was about all basic /
fundamental research since I assume that you only find out later if it's
worthwhile.
Humanity didn't see too much good from most of the
research done in the
last century.
True; and yet almost
everything man made you see around you has been formed by the research of the
20th century. Einstein's quantum physics made the transistor possible. That
made the IC possible which made the computer, the electronic washing machine and
so on annd so forth possible. Einstein did get funding from patents, but not
directly because of his research; only because he worked in a patent office.
Myhrvold himself even deals with this issue when he says that you have to
make very many inventions for one of them to pay off.
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