<div class="gmail_quote">On 4 October 2012 18:26, David Lubkin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lubkin@unreasonable.com" target="_blank">lubkin@unreasonable.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Imagine it's Madagascar or Kyrgystan. Saying "R&D" is<br>
meaningless. <br>
Kyrgystan is currently the second poorest country in Central Asia.<br>
90% of Madagascar lives on under $2 a day, 70% under a dollar<br>
a day. The only way they can plow sudden wealth into R&D is<br>
importing a cohort of foreigners, which introduces its own<br>
problems and doesn't set them up for later success.<br clear="all"></blockquote></div><br>Mmhhh. Yes. But this is true because they actually do *not* have a "sudden surge of cash".<br><br>Otherwise they would not be in their current predicament in the first place. <br>
<br>I suspect that unlimited fundings, strong motivation and a favourable legal framework could do miracles even in a seasteading operation, which would certainly be much "poorer" in absolute terms.<br><br>North Korea managed to develop some kind-of nuclear/space tech, and yet they cannot really be considered as swimming in cash, natural resources, international support and brain drain from other countries.<br>
<br>--<br>Stefano Vaj<br>