@nntaleb The most terrifying thing is the LLN in action. Those myriads of small Chinese businesses and factories, once ridiculed for "bad quality w/o Western supervision", generation later coming up with science fiction level of tech .. when you start noticing the pace, it is far too late

@stan_yurin What is LLN?

@nntaleb Iterate > Innovate

@nntaleb Regarding science coming from technology, clearly that is often the case, but not for high tech. Think of computers, nuclear energy, MRI scanners -- all important examples of science preceding tech.

@nntaleb This might be why the Economy welcome more R&D collaboration than just sending in manufacturing Sending in the explorers for discoveries

@nntaleb I collect stories from CEOs in medicine about the discoveries they made that haven’t been published. It’s a different world in here when millions are at stake

@nntaleb But prof, they claimed it's win-win, or vin-vin! 😂 BTW, when some of us raised objections about the flawed win-win model, we were ridiculed by high profile economists who enjoyed prestigious prizes.

@nntaleb And what they dont discover, they just take. Always surprises me that more people don't know the Steve Saleen story with China.

@nntaleb Imagine if this was applied to universities. All economics scholarship would happen in, say, Austria. All history in English universities. And so on. No cross pollination.

@nntaleb I don’t think US gave its manufacturing away following Ricardo but rather as a “seductive power dynamics” to transform China into a US province as anyhow if most of China’s commerce depends on raw materials/energy supply coming from maritime routes controlled by US naval forces…

@nntaleb @ProfSteveKeen Great point. At E Ink we filed 200 patents on our paper-like display (in the Kindle). About 67% of those only arose after we built our factory. It's like running a large-scale controlled experiment every single hour.

@nntaleb The other flaw in Ricardo's model is that over optimization by sending all production of X to country Y means that if an Earthquake hits country Y, the world has no X

@nntaleb @Return2Mimetic You may get what you want intentionally only to lose what you got incidentally.

@nntaleb This is what happens when theology is disregarded as useless.

@nntaleb Not necessarily a flaw. If the US shifts to production (including intangible) that generates even more valuable IP, the outsourcing of lower-level activities is worth it. The problem is the US allows China to steal this IP.

@nntaleb Few sensible things in economics. #physics -envy

@nntaleb When living in China, a Western engineer working there said a Chinese manager said to him "in 10 years we won't need you anymore". I lived in China for one year, left 2013. The Chinese have been working off 10-20 year plans. Meanwhile, the West has gorged on cheap imports and…

@nntaleb Not sure how much you hate him, but Martin Heidegger had the same point that technology is prior to science. Only pure intellectuals think that science comes from “pure intellect” and not technology, artifacts, tools etc with which you can probe and tinker and bounce ideas of.

@nntaleb This is basically what Japan did for decades. They discovered/invented many things by accident while focusing on "copying" products from all over the world. Two examples that come to mind: - blue LED lighting (Shuji Nakamura while working at Nichia Corporation). The discovery…

@nntaleb This interconnectness (1177) with the Phonecians. It's not just about trade, also placed their best craft men. It wasn't just gifting with kings, it was lobbying. I guess, and product placement.