[ExI] evolutionary psychology

[Kelly Anderson]

2011/12/28 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Gordon
> Subject: [ExI] evolutionary psychology
>
> My own experience with patents is that if you have a good idea, get going on
> it.  For reasons I have never understood, it seems like whatever you invent,
> someone somewhere is working on the same thing at the same time.  Seize the
> day.

Sorry for the late reply here, but I can't pass on this one. In
software, at least, my experience is just the opposite. Nobody has
ever seemed interested in copying other people's software ideas very
much, and venture capitalists encourage you to share your ideas early
on to get better feedback. If what you were saying here were true
Spike, then they would suggest that you keep things secret.

Now, this may have to do with how large a space software takes up...
the amount of software that hasn't been written yet is clearly a
larger sort of infinity than the number of cars that haven't yet been
built. And that may be the difference here.

Software patents, an area I have a little bit of expertise in, seem to
me to be an utter waste of time. You can't write a 100 line program
without violating ten patents, and you'll never know which 10 they
are. Software is so inherently inventive, that patents just don't
enter into the useful day to day life of programmers.

-Kelly