Mapping the Frontier of Knowledge
Juan Enriquez
a Long Now Seminar
The talk is at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center.
Granted, he's pointing his finger at a very large elephant, but at least he knows how large it is. 800:30 is a fierce imbalance and the point I think is not that legislation and litigation are all bad, just way out of control.
Phillip 9 months ago
Peps! It does a body good!
Ericson 9 months ago
I don't object to that statement per se. But to blame legislation and litigation is simplistic, and begs the question why there is legislation and litigation (which are also consequences of something). It ain't all just frivolous -- unintended consequences or not.
drain 9 months ago
Despite Adrian's objections, for me the quote of the night (paraphrased) was: Pharma companies are marketing companies now. Global competitors look at our 8million dollar cost to bring a drug to market and see huge opportunity. This is bad for us and bad for consumers. The culprits in this are legislation and litigation. Shame on us for letting it get to this.
Phillip 9 months ago
He talked about our explorations of the map of like: aka genetics and other biological/medical/mechanical sciences dedicated to exploring life in all its forms. Nothing he said was particularly surprising, although he did bring a lot of recent data. Our maps are only thinly sketched outlines right now, but that is rapidly changing, and it will lead to all sorts of questions. The questions I ended up were all about his assumptions, why are we exploring this, why should we care, it may be good for you and me(as wealthy Americans), but what about for the wider world, why does Portugal NEED to be rich? Has the expense of all our new drugs been actually worth the cost?
drain 9 months ago
The friends who came along with me thought the talk was awful, but the question and answer was great. I fall somewhere in between there. The talk wasn't great, but his answers, led to more questions. Maybe that's a good thing -- and really its why I like going to these lectures, the lecturers abilities aside: I always come out with as many questions as answers.
drain 9 months ago
Cool. I image and imagine that it is like drawing something you are familiar with but with your eyes closed. I know someone who loves maps and invited him.
Ericson 9 months ago
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Ah but does he? 800 is a disputed number. Factor in that it almost always costs more to make things here (how much of that is their CEOs salary?). And how much public money is included in that 800 (they get their subsidies too)? And as to the 30. Is that from scratch? or having ripped off basic science and chemistry (in places with no patent protections, another thing he railed in favor of?) And if you regulate litigation, what consequences will THAT lead to? ;-) I'm sure the drug companies have as many lawyers suing people as they do them. Not that I'm a big fan of our suing culture by any means. There's plenty of other questions in there too: How much of the science of drugs (especially ones aimed at true health care issues - malaria, aids, cancers that sort of thing) come from universities and research organizations? (I don't know the answers I'm just curious) I know phizer was hugely disappointed by having a drug dropped around heart disease -- which I think is the one that my brother in law was talking about preventitive medicine (aka diet and exercise) are much more effective than our drugs. Peps interestingly enough was invented over a 100 years ago (google pepto bismo).
drain 9 months ago