[ExI] Direct solar electrolysis - decentralised fuel infrastructure, is it viable?

Emlyn emlynoregan at gmail.com
Tue Oct 14 22:41:01 UTC 2008


2008/10/14 The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>:
> --- On Mon, 10/13/08, Emlyn <emlynoregan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So... could you turn this into something commercially
>> viable for a mom
>> & pop operation, such that they lay down their dollars,
>> a solar farm +
>> hydrolysis equipment + storage facilities + commercial gas
>> station is
>> constructed, and they then operate this, selling their gas?
>
> If you think it is commercially viable, then I urge you to *not* discuss it on the open list. I remind you that there is a known safe and efficacious drug that cures most cancers in rats but dying cancer patients never receive because the drug is in the public domain. Google 'dichloroacetate' if you don't believe me.
>
> Nothing outside of software ever gets developed or manufactured in our greedy world unless some company can patent it and monopolize it for all it is worth. We must work within the systemic boundaries of the horrible corner that we as a society have painted ourselves into if we would have any hope of escaping this malthusian trap and servitude to the oil companies. Of course if you trust the government to be interested in it enough to implement it correctly with public funding, then feel free to continue.
>

It might be interesting, don't talk about it! There's a special circle
of hell reserved for everyone involved in the intellectual property
business. Well probably there isn't, so it needs building...

This ongoing crapola where promising non patentable compounds languish
is really pathetic. As is coming up so often lately in so many areas,
it seems like another place where the market just totally fails. Now
it may very well be that it isn't strictly the fault of the market,
but rather of the intellectual property regulatory framework, but we
are still left with a problem.

My knee-jerk reaction here is that we need a shedload of public money
to make up for this, to fund bringing to market these kinds of
promising drugs. Surely, if the government is also on the hook for
paying for less effective treatments for these cancers otherwise, on a
big scale, then it could make financial sense for government to pay to
bring superior public domain drugs to market where these look likely
to exist?

Another possible angle is a large charitable organisation to do this
work. Does this already exist?

Is there a free market solution? I guess the correct question is, how
can we modify the regulatory system such that there is incentive to
bring this stuff to market, without compromising the safety of the
system?

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com - my home
http://point7.wordpress.com - downshifting and ranting
http://speakingoffreedom.blogspot.com - video link feed of great talks
on eCulture



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