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C00002 00002 basict[f85,jmc] Support for basic technology
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basict[f85,jmc] Support for basic technology
My own concern is different from either that expressed by
Nicholas Wade or that expressed by the Twentieth Century Fund.
I would like to see more corporate support for basic technology.
Here's an example from my own experience. For a long time
I have been interested in the use of the ordinary telephone system
for inter-computer communication. As soon as suitable protocols
are devised, tested and publicized, it will be possible to users
of any computer in the world to send mail and files to users of
any other computer in the world reasonably economically by the
ordinary phone system. The necessary hardware has existed since
before 1970. Yet it has been difficult to get government or
industry support for developing these protocols. NSF supported
my project in this area cheaply and briefly but stopped support
apparently because I didn't propose studying social consequences
considering the protocols themselves a matter for industry.
Industrial support was difficult to acquire, because it was hard
to see how to make any money from the protocols themselves. Now
I have found a variant of the idea that can make money, and it
looks like there will be industry interest. I'll not tell you
what it is for commercial reasons.