Re: McCain answers Scientists & Engineers for America's questionaire

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Bartas <jbartas () speakeasy net>
Date: September 15, 2008 8:33:44 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:     McCain answers Scientists & Engineers for  
America's questionaire

Dave - a reply to Rahul:

On the contrary, I was struck by the substantial difference between  
the two answers to question 1. To summarize (anonymizing per Rahul's  
request):

Campaign FOO would stoke the innovation pipeline by funding pure  
research and more STEM education (grants, scholarships, student loans,  
more K-12 science, etc).

Campaign BAR would provide tax breaks and pools of capital to motivate  
businesses to innovate, essentially trying to pull more out of the  
existing innovation pipeline.

  Each approach makes a basic assumption about innovation.

FOO assumes that education will boost innovation, that higher  
education will produce more breakthrough discoveries.

BAR assumes that financial rewards motivate invention - that  
scientists and engineers will invent more if tax if the tax and  
investment climate is favorable.

My personal experience favors FOO. The scientists I know, mostly  
silicon valley types but also aerospace and chemistry, did get solid  
education  before they contributed. But these folks didn't worry much  
about tax rates and capital pools - they had their ideas first and  
thought about productizing them as an afterthought, if at all. The BAR  
approach seems to assume innovations continue apace even if we fail to  
educate young scientists.

The BAR idea holds that greed is more important to innovation than  
intelligence. But how often does someone say "Wow I just thought up a  
killer invention! But I'm going to wait until taxes go down before I  
productize it."

Cheers,
-JB-


David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Rahul Tongia <tongia () cmu edu>
> Date: September 15, 2008 2:22:45 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    McCain answers Scientists & Engineers for  
> America's questionaire
>
> Dave,
>
> I have a suggestion.
>
> Can someone please reproduce the answers in an anonymous form,  
> without the red or blue, and where the order of answer varies  
> randomly (so that things like "as a former navy officer" don't give  
> everything away)? [I don't have the skills/time/both?]
>
> If I read it in that manner, I find that many of the answers are  
> surprisingly "similar" but perhaps just statements not reflective of  
> action (though some answers had more substance).  If they are both  
> saying similar things (candidates always say things like smarter,  
> efficient, governance, never more, bloated government), then this  
> boils down to our ability to trust whether they truly *understand*  
> and *believe* the underlying issues, and whether they will take  
> specific actions and policies to achieve the goals.
>
> Rahul
>
> ************************************************************************
> Rahul Tongia, Ph.D.
> Senior Systems Scientist
>
> Program in Computation, Organizations, and Society (COS)
> School of Computer Science (ISR) /
> Dept. of Engineering & Public Policy
>
> Carnegie Mellon University
> Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
> tel: 412-268-5619
> fax: 412-268-2338
> email: tongia () cmu edu
> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rtongia
>
>
>
>
> David Farber wrote:
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > From: "Malin, Bradley A" <b.malin () Vanderbilt Edu>
> > Date: September 15, 2008 12:04:33 PM EDT
> > To: <dave () farber net>
> > Subject: RE: [IP] McCain answers Scientists & Engineers for  
> > America's questionaire
> >
> > Dave,
> >
> > This link appears to be dead.  I believe that the following is live:
> >
> > http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=44
> >
> > Also, to put McCain's answers in context, there's a side-by-side  
> > comparison
> > with Barack Obama response to the questionnaire:
> >
> > http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > -brad
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
> > > Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:19 AM
> > > To: ip
> > > Subject: [IP] McCain answers Scientists & Engineers for America's
> > > questionaire
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Begin forwarded message:
> > >
> > > From: Robert J Berger <rberger () ibd com>
> > > Date: September 15, 2008 11:10:18 AM EDT
> > >
> > >
> > > Dear SEA Member,
> > > As a member of SEA, you are among the first to know. Senator McCain
> > > has answered our coalition's Innovation & the Elections  
> > > questionnaire.
> > >
> > > Now that Senators McCain and Obama have answered, you can  
> > > comparewhat
> > > they have both said.
> > >
> > > Thanks to Science Debate 2008, the coalition, and all the SEA  
> > > members
> > > who supported the project. Together, we are making science and
> > > technology a top issue in 2008!
> > >
> > >
> > > McCain's answers:
> > > http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=10132004&msgid=126787&act=2TL
> > > T&c=212224&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fsharp.sefora.org 
> > > %2Fpeople%2
> > > Fpresidential-candidates%2Fjohn-mccain-presidential-candidate%2F
> > >
> > > <snip>
> > >
> > >
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