by unexaminedlife on 4/27/21, 5:10 PM with 1 comments
I recently read an article where Bill Gates (as it was written in the interview transcript) seemed extremely certain that he did not see value (and perhaps was very against the idea) in sharing intellectual property with other countries so they could ramp up additional production of coronavirus vaccines.
He, of course sounded off as though he's concerned about the "manufacturing process" and how it needs to be carefully managed, which I don't disagree with.
But here's the thing, which I think is an extremely important issue human civilization is going to need to grapple with over the next several decades:
But let's start with currency value. One thing that I find extraordinarily ridiculous about our current (mostly) global economy. It feels counter-intuitive to me, but countries are not in a race to strengthen their currencies. They all seem happy with the idea of weakening their currencies in order to continue to be able to export to other countries. Why not, instead, try to strengthen the weak countries? I mean of course there need to be boundaries because there are plenty of corrupt governments out there who would love to take advantage of such a situation. But the point is that MOST countries SHOULD be capable and we should be willing to help them strengthen their currencies. The only way we can do that is by helping them strengthen their economies, and really let's be honest in a technological civilization intellectual property is perhaps THE THING that these countries need more of in order to make that happen.
CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT...
by unexaminedlife on 4/27/21, 5:11 PM
We could then argue about the potential pitfalls and how these countries may not be "ready for it" yet, but who's to say one way or another. If we're going to have a global economy our goal should be in STRENGTHENING our economies not weakening them. I mean the stock market is doing great and all but a lot of that is (at least right now) because our currency is so weak compared to what it has been historically.
You might now be asking yourself, "But, what about corruption. Even countries we consider 'allies' can end up with bad apples in powerful positions". I'll then ask you the same question. Even we ended up with Trump in office, which arguably is going to hold the US back for decades to come in terms of foreign relationships.
The real point here is whether or not human civilization truly believes that human civilization is by nature good. Do we believe these countries will use the shared intellectual property for good rather than evil. If we as a civilization have by now come to the conclusion that human civilization by nature is bad, then what are we protecting? It's all going to eventually turn to shit and, really, why do we want this wonderful planet to be primarily inhabited by an inherently evil species?