[extropy-chat] Some ideas... dumped

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Emlyn <emlynoregan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think there are a million things you could build
> right now and that
> people would find useful, and some relatively large
> subset of these
> would be commercialisable. The 'net, for instance,
> is still a fabulous
> rambling mess of stuff where everything that is hard
> to do or hard to
> understand or hard to use for people can be seen as
> an opportunity.

More of an advantage, at least from my view, is the
fact that if you can conceive of it and it's simple
enough, someone else has probably done it - but now
you can find that other person, or at least stories
about why they failed if it's actually non-viable.
(There are rare occasions when what you're doing truly
is unique.  And in those cases, you're less likely to
face competition, at least until you can commercialize
and recover investment - if you move fast enough.)

> btw, it is also my contention that most ideas for
> doing things can be
> safely blurted out in public fora / blogs. Any ideas
> worth pursuing
> take enough work that people wont normally steal
> them, in fact they
> think the idea is crap (I can't see that...) until
> it is made
> concrete. Ideas aren't something people want to
> grab, you usually have
> to ram them down people's throats.

And besides, for most ideas really worth doing, our
own lives are enriched even if someone else rips them
off and successfully implements them.  For instance,
say I suddenly realized a simple, safe, cheap, and
reliable way to upload people that could be done with
today's technology, and I bounced it off people, one
of whom went ahead and did it without telling me while
I was still bouncing it around.  Net result: it
becomes possible for people like me to upload.  Yes, I
don't collect the corresponding fortune...but I and
those I care about could have immortality (or, at
least, rid ourselves of most of the age-related causes
of death) if we choose.  I'd still win, right along
with most of the human race.

That said, you do have to look out for yourself.  But
making the world better can, sometimes, bring us far
more material rewards than going after the material
rewards themselves.  Sometimes.