You probably know Nikola Tesla, the man who according to a series of sites you can find around invented basically everything. Not quite, however. If you go and read a proper Tesla biography, such as W. Bernard Carlson's Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age you will discover that many things said about Tesla are myths.
However, there is consensus in attributing Tesla the invention of the induction motor and of rotating magnetic fields. Now, suppose Tesla hadn't ever been born. And I present you with a quest…
[This post is a translation of this other post of mine]
I recently read Mariana Mazzucato's The Entrepreneurial State, where it is proposed that the State has and ought to have an important role in the scientific-technologic field, beyond solving market failures and externalities.
As a reminder that States do things in this sector it is okay. Maybe it could be of some use to believers in some sort of heroic entrepreneurs. But in general, the book is poorly argued and documented. (In the near future I hope t…
[This post is a translation of this other post of mine]
As we saw in a previous post, one of the main examples used by Mariana Mazzucato to validate her arguments is the case of the iPhone. Let us remember, Mazzucato's thesis is that most of modern technology is due to directed governmental research efforts, not only in basic science, but also in technological commercialisation, direct investment, loans, etc. These kinds of policies make up what she calls The Entrepreneurial State. We must make clear the di…
[This post is translation of this other post of mine]
The most important example in Mazzucato's book The Entrepreneurial State is probably that of the iPhone: She goes as far as dedicating one entire chapter only to that example.
The fixation with Apple's device is justified: It takes one of the typical examples of supposed entrepreneurial creativity, an effort of garage entrerepeneur, and a triumph of capitalism, and subverts it, making us se that the visible hand of the State has been behind it, without h…
"No puedes probar una negación. Quien proponga algo debe ser el que respalde la afirmación, no el que la niegue"=P
"Algo es falso hasta que se demuestre que es verdadero"=Q
Argumentaré contra ambas ideas. Son errores comunes refutados en filosofía, pero que surgen a veces entre los que no son frikis de la SEP.
Probando negaciones
Probar una negación es muy fácil, aunque no lo parezca. Pensemos en "Pikachu existe". Un ateo de los Pikachus le dice a un Pikachuista: "Demuéstr…
Corre por las webs un post de un blog que dice refutar el libertarismo en unas pocas palabras. Lo intenta hacer criticando el llamado principio de autopropiedad: que somos dueños de nosotros mismos. El post considera empírica y lógicamente erróneo este principio, y además inmoral (!).
¿Qué es lo que intenta decir?
Primero, caracteriza el principio como "nuestro cuerpo es nuestra propiedad, y podemos hacer lo que queramos con él, siempre que no lo usemos para violar las libertades ajenas. Este uso inclu…