undefined | Better HN

0 pointsincrudible5y ago0 comments

It's not zero-sum. These improvements are externalities, they are permanent and apply to all other uses of computing.

Similarly, one can point out all the advances that the Apollo program brought that are unrelated to space travel. COVID brought in lots of scientific insights that will bear fruit regardless of whether we have to deal with any other coronaviruses in the future.

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

paulgb5y ago· 2 in thread

Sure, and smoking is responsible for advances in lung cancer research. It's the broken-window fallacy, though. The resources that were reallocated to lung cancer research due to smoking could have been used for other things.

incrudibleOP5y ago

> It's the broken-window fallacy, though.

The broken window fallacy does not consider the benefits from improvements of technology that may result from destruction. Suppose that smashing a bunch of windows would lead to permanent improvements in glassmaking efficiency. In that case, the benefits in the long run would far outweigh the short term costs. Of course, that's not a given with any form of destruction, but I am arguing that it is the case with cryptocurrency.

paulgb5y ago

The fallacy does account for that. In a counterfactual where the windows were not broken, the effort spent improving the efficiency of glassmaking would have been directed (by the invisible hand) to improving the efficiency of something else.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse