[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

If the pursuit of profit is immoral, I shouldn't have set up the business in the first place, and nobody should invest in it or even lend me money to start up. But then nobody would have been employed!

What's immoral is when the way we make profit causes more losses for wider society, such as involving frauds, monopoly, corruption, robbery, theft, etc.

[alancalverd]

Aubrey de Grey predicted that persons who will live into a thousand years have been living with us.

Prediction is not evidence. Trees live for 1000 years, so the project may be of interest to them.

The information can be exchanged across generations. Especially if it's important enough.

So important that it is worth asking someone who almost certainly won't be the original addressee, and so unimportant that you can't be bothered to find out for yourself for 2000 years.

[alancalverd]

What's immoral is when the way we make profit causes more losses for wider society, such as involving frauds, monopoly, corruption, robbery, theft, etc.

If monopoly is immoral, we should not grant patents and copyrights. But then nobody would bother to invent or create anything.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

So important that it is worth asking someone who almost certainly won't be the original addressee, and so unimportant that you can't be bothered to find out for yourself for 2000 years.

Some important scientific questions went unanswered for centuries.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

What's immoral is when the way we make profit causes more losses for wider society, such as involving frauds, monopoly, corruption, robbery, theft, etc.

If monopoly is immoral, we should not grant patents and copyrights. But then nobody would bother to invent or create anything.

Patents and copyrights don't necessarily lead to monopoly.

Patents and Monopoly: A Complex Relationship
A patent grants its owner the exclusive right to make, use, sell, or import an invention for a limited period. This exclusivity is often equated to a monopoly, but the reality is more nuanced.
Patents as Limited Monopolies
 * Exclusive Rights: A patent does provide exclusive rights over the patented invention, which is similar to a monopoly. This can lead to higher prices or limited product availability.
 * Time-Limited: However, this exclusivity is temporary, typically lasting 20 years. After that, the invention enters the public domain, fostering competition.
 * Innovation Incentive: Patents are intended to incentivize innovation by rewarding inventors with exclusive rights. This encourages investment in research and development.
Not a Full Monopoly
 * Market Dynamics: While a patent grants exclusive rights, it doesn't guarantee market dominance. Other factors like competition, consumer preferences, and technological advancements can limit the patent holder's market power.
 * Workarounds: Competitors often develop alternative products or processes that achieve similar results without infringing on the patent. This is known as "designing around."
 * Licensing: Patent holders can license their technology to others, increasing market penetration and potentially fostering competition.
Balancing Act
The relationship between patents and monopoly is a delicate balance. Patents are essential for driving innovation, but they can also lead to market concentration and higher prices. To address these concerns, many jurisdictions have implemented antitrust laws and patent reform measures.
In conclusion, while patents do create a form of limited monopoly, their impact on competition and market dynamics is complex and depends on various factors. The overall goal is to strike a balance between protecting intellectual property rights and promoting competition and innovation.

Gemini

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

Why Generalists Beat Specialists | Jack of All Trades

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert A Heinlein

[alancalverd]

Wow! Gemini can read what the Patent Office has written! Come to think of it, I've written similar things on these pages, but rather deeper.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

Wow! Gemini can read what the Patent Office has written! Come to think of it, I've written similar things on these pages, but rather deeper.

Unrestricted monopoly has a high chance to hurt the society. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The Gemini quote I posted before just contradicts your previous statement. Monopoly is usually immoral. Patents and copyrights can be granted without leading to monopoly.

[alancalverd]

Every patentee knows that a patent grants a temporary monopoly in the territories that recognise the particular patent convention under which it was made. Similarly copyright. You still have to defend and where possible extend your monopoly, but the patent is what tells a court whether someone has used intellectual property that did not belong to him at the time.

Retribution can be extreme. I've been a partial beneficiary of a patent lawsuit that was settled for hundreds of millions of dollars. I've also filed patents that made no money at all, because the market moved away from my process.

The "deeper" stuff that Gemini didn't really discuss is where a patented product is so successful, particularly in agriculture, that its predecessors and competitors disappear completely  and nobody can afford the time or money to produce anything better, so one company effectively controls the world price and distribution of an essential like rice or wheat. But without the initial monopoly, there would have been no prospect of recouping the cost of developing the product and thus increasing the world supply of food.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

Trying to Convince ChatGPT It's Conscious

- VIDEO NOTES

ChatGPT is an impressive mimicry of a fully-conscious conversational partner. Perhaps too impressive?

The thing is, we keep associating consciousness with this "metaphysical" anthropocentric quality or even entity that's completely ineffable logically and tautologically "evidenced" empirically. But if you view it as an emergent property of matter (naturalistic worldview) that even worms can have, there's no impediment for a complex model like this one to have a consciousness, considering it has more "neurons" than many animals (and probably more functioning neurons than many humans).
A comment to the video.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

What's the goal of granting a patent?

The primary goal of granting a patent is to encourage innovation and technological advancement.
By providing inventors with exclusive rights to their inventions for a limited period, patents offer a strong incentive to invest time, money, and resources into research and development.
Here's a breakdown of the key objectives:
 * To reward inventors: Patents recognize the creativity and effort of inventors by granting them exclusive rights.
 * To promote innovation: By protecting intellectual property, patents stimulate further research and development.
 * To disclose new knowledge: As a condition of granting a patent, inventors must publicly disclose details of their invention, adding to the overall body of knowledge.
 * To foster economic growth: Patents can lead to the creation of new products, industries, and jobs, contributing to economic prosperity.
It's important to note that patent systems are designed to balance the interests of inventors with the public's right to access new technologies.
Gemini

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

The 2008 Housing Bubble - Recessions Explained

Home prices have skyrocketed over the last few months. The dream of owning a home, which became a possibility for many families is evaporating with an overwhelming demand for homes, which has driven the price up.

But this isn?t a game. It?s people?s dreams and livelihoods.

So, is the current real estate market a reflection, or a warning of what happened in 2008?

I?m one of them, one of those millennials who needed to come into this game of mortgages and real estate and find a way to come out alive. I bought my first condo around September last year, in one of the worst moments in the pandemic- so I had to learn.

Now I?ll save you some headaches and explain it back to you.

--

0:00 Housing Bubbles  - Intro
1:26 Housing Bubbles  - The 2008 Crisis
1:52 Housing Bubbles  - Buying a House
3:28 Housing Bubbles  - Moar Money
5:16 Housing Bubbles  - Derivatives
6:06 Housing Bubbles  - House of Cards
7:15 Housing Bubbles  - The 2021 Housing Bubble

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

Why Most People Are Actually "Too Good" For Their Job

I have some bad news for you?

You probably won?t ever be a tech worker at a FAANG company, a bulge bracket finance bro or a high-powered corporate executive.

Society needs people to do the real jobs that keep us housed, fed and safe, and it needs them a lot more than it needs another McKinsey consultant.

This is a problem because no matter how you put it, a job where you sit in an air-conditioned office making six figures a year in your first year out of college is way more desirable than doing roadwork in Arizona for 20 bucks an hour.

The problem is that everybody is trying really hard to pretend this isn?t true, and the system that has sprung up to maintain this dream has caused more problems than you realize.
 
Peter Turchin is a complexity scientist, who mathematically models the statistical dynamics of historical societies.
 
He coined the theory of ?Elite Overproduction?.
 
He argues in his books and papers that societies make workers just like they make anything, a car goes through a factory, and a college graduate goes through a few decades of schooling. At the end you get something you can drive around in and something that can make pivot tables in excel.

[alancalverd]

What's the goal of granting a patent?

As usual, Gemini has produced a shallow and inaccurate crowdpleaser.

The goal of granting a patent is only to offer legal protection of intellectual property.

"Disclosing knowledge" is partially correct, but only in the USA where you can patent a discovery (i.e. new knowledge). In the civilised world you can only patent a process or a mechanism, and the key element of disclosure is "such that a person skilled in the art could reproduce it" - i.e. a synthesis of existing knowledge.

There is no objective of public right to know. The principal value of disclosure is legal, so the courts can decide whether a third party has indeed infringed your monopoly. It gets problematic if you don't exploit your monopoly (yes, the word "exploit" is an essential element of patent law) because the court has to decide whether the defendant had taken reasonable care to avoid infringement. If you never took your product (or the patent itself) to market, ignorance could become a defence, but a large corporation would be expected to keep up to date with relevant patents because it's usually cheaper and quicker to get a licence than to invent and prove a product from scratch. Failure to exploit or market a patent can also nullify the monopoly if it can be shown that the purpose of the patent was only to prevent anyone from doing it.

It's all very complicated and obviously well beyond the comprehension of a chatbot. 
 

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

As usual, Gemini has produced a shallow and inaccurate crowdpleaser.

The goal of granting a patent is only to offer legal protection of intellectual property.

IMO, Gemini's answer is deeper than yours, because it explains the longer term goals. It answers more levels of subsequent why questions.

The primary goal of granting a patent is to encourage innovation and technological advancement.

Innovation and technological advancement are some ways to increase the consciousness level of the society.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

As ably demonstrated by a guided missile.

A guided missile is more conscious than an unguided missile.
A baby is more conscious than a fetus.
Generally, an adult is more conscious than a child, and they are more conscious than a baby.
A conscious man is more conscious than an unconscious man.

A guided man is more conscious than an unguided man, which in turn is more conscious than a misguided man.
A guided AI is more conscious than an unguided AI, which in turn is more conscious than a misguided AI.

[alancalverd]

it explains the longer term goals.

No, it invented some. Ask the Patent Office why they grant patents. Or ask a  patentee why he applied for one.

The classic example of using research for public benefit is Fleming's refusal to patent the production and applications of penicillin. Recent scandals have erupted where a venture capital group has bought the rights to a useful drug and increased the price by a factor of 1000.

I think Gemini is manned by Pollyanna.

[alancalverd]

A guided man is more conscious than an unguided man,

So a slave, or a religious fanatic, is more conscious than Einstein? Progress comes from mavericks, not followers.

[alancalverd]

Innovation and technological advancement are some ways to increase the consciousness level of the society.

As evidenced by current race riots in England. The old neofascist organisations, whose officers could be identified and prosecuted, have been replaced by unattributable antisocial media platforms.

At a less harmful level, a teacher friend was dismayed to find that 11-year-old children believe that milk comes from shops, not cows.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

No, it invented some. Ask the Patent Office why they grant patents. Or ask a  patentee why he applied for one.

The longer term was thought by builders of the overall system. The lawmakers who invented and refined the patent system. Patent officers and patentees are the players.