OT True - betting big on research and Science Fiction writers

[mcdow...@sky.com]

The podcast/talk at http://www.lse.ac.uk/website-archive/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=3962 "Moonshot thinking to unleash innovation" sounds a lot like a share price and recruiting ad for Telefonica, but it purportedly describes how a spin-off company called Alpha is going to focus a great deal of research effort on a small number of supposedly high-payoff research proposals - and there are a few words in the talk about hiring Science Fiction writers as part of the early phase of deciding what they are going to bet on.

(Personally I smell over-confidence, and an atmosphere of research administrators slapping each other on the back that reminds me of the administrators at the end of Ender's Game. I would be more impressed if I had heard that they'd looked closely at pharmaceutical R&D, who have been doing high-risk stuff for decades, and who don't claim to identify a few winners from the start - they have multiple stages of tests, and expect to lose a significant proportion of the candidate drugs at each stage).

[John Dallman]

In article <d4f3640e-3af7-42d7...@googlegroups.com>,

mcdow...@sky.com () wrote:

> I would be more impressed if I had heard that they'd
> looked closely at pharmaceutical R&D, who have been doing

> high-risk stuff for decades ...

Pharmaceutical R&D now has companies who claim "moonshot thinking,"
usually in conjunction with as-yet-unproven software methods. They live
off venture capitalists, naturally.


John

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <d4f3640e-3af7-42d7...@googlegroups.com>,

Maybe they want the SF writers to write marketing blurbs?

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com

[Dimensional Traveler]

There have been stranger inspirations for SF stories.

--
Inquiring minds want to know while minds with a self-preservation
instinct are running screaming.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <p3dvpq$tgi$1...@dont-email.me>,

Generally by Fredrik Pohl.

[Dimensional Traveler]

I would have thought Philip K. Dick. :)

[Quadibloc]

On Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 11:24:52 AM UTC-7, mcdow...@sky.com wrote:
> and there are a few words in the talk about hiring Science Fiction writers as
> part of the early phase of deciding what they are going to bet on.

There are _some_ science-fiction writers that would perhaps be appropriate choices
for such a post. The only one I can think of offhand, however, is deceased: Arthur
C. Clarke, author of _Profiles of the Future_.

Science fiction isn't what it used to be...

John Savard

[Ninapenda Jibini]

Quadibloc <jsa...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote in
news:6b1b726b-3b6c-4725...@googlegroups.com:

Gregory Benford comes to mind. Catherine Asaor, too.

--
Terry Austin

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 1/14/18 2:09 AM, Ninapenda Jibini wrote:
> Quadibloc <jsa...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote in
> news:6b1b726b-3b6c-4725...@googlegroups.com:
>
>> On Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 11:24:52 AM UTC-7,
>> mcdow...@sky.com wrote:
>>> and there are a few words in the talk about hiring Science
>>> Fiction writers as part of the early phase of deciding what
>>> they are going to bet on.
>>
>> There are _some_ science-fiction writers that would perhaps be
>> appropriate choices for such a post. The only one I can think of
>> offhand, however, is deceased: Arthur C. Clarke, author of
>> _Profiles of the Future_.
>>
>> Science fiction isn't what it used to be...
>>
> Gregory Benford comes to mind. Catherine Asaor, too.
>

I could hang around and kibitz, but while I do a fair amount of
research work it's not generally involved in space-related stuff.


--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.dreamwidth.org

[Greg Goss]

mcdow...@sky.com wrote:

> would be more impressed if I had heard that they'd looked closely at
>pharmaceutical R&D, who have been doing high-risk stuff for decades,
>and who don't claim to identify a few winners from the start - they
>have multiple stages of tests, and expect to lose a significant
>proportion of the candidate drugs at each stage).

And every fifty years or so, they gain something in testing. Like
when Pfizer's test candidates noticed an odd side effect for their
blood pressure medication Sildenafil,
--
We are geeks. Resistance is voltage over current.

[Greg Goss]

Niven / Pournelle placed some barely masked famous writers (including
themselves) into the consultant group in Footfall.