@Mark, I agree with you that this is an almost impossible discussion to win, but I'll also write that if we are planning to replicate Asian economies whose basis of success was partly reverse engineering, then we are totally screwed and will never come up. How does one reverse engineer an already reverse-engineered process, idea or concept. That's like micro reverse engineering, with zero results.

 

If the romans build roads and everyone else followed, then are we saying that the tarmac is the end of it? We've seen our Nairobi roads, they have gaping potholes due to many reasons. I can imagine during the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar asking for the head on a plate of the pathetic governor who is assigned to maintain the roads just because Casear's drive ended up in a ditch due to some really poor work done. Because the romans thought hard about how to win wars and create empires, they came up with significant changes. The classic example is Shaka Zulu and the short spear whose action defeated the traditional spear, this was key in winning battles. Ofcourse, against a machine gun or cannon, the spear is useless and this is how the west won their wars. Taking the chinese invention of gunpowder and converting it to do damage on the battlefield. Am sure you know your history and can add value to this.

 

The thing is, propreitary drives everything. How can we be a part of this process and where are we lacking in our thinking knowing that there is an economic war upon us that we cannot win until we start fighting back on the same terms. We need to get propreitary too and stop wasting time on code handouts under different names.  What are the solutions here? I have no idea and can only admire the image of the safe vault as a strong reminder and the humor that goes with it. Something needs to be done but what?

 

Do you now see why I dislike free-code, one of its results is our capacity to think is highly reduced because we can only think of the top layers i.e its application and how to turn it into an income earner. Because our economies are based on surviveability, this is the breeding ground for shortcuts. What about the core foundation?

 

Some thots.

 

Rgds. :-)

 

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