Jul 7, 2024 11:49 PM
(This post was last modified: Jul 8, 2024 12:18 AM by C C.)
The time and money squandered on the dead-ends of "technological openness" sounds a bit like an industrial version of "inclusiveness" infiltrating the sci-tech sector. The radical equality of all ideas -- thou shalt not discriminate one proposal over another.
- - - - - - - - - -
https://youtu.be/W1ZZ-Yni8Fg
VIDEO EXCERPTS: I never thought I would say this, but I’m embarrassed to be German...
Germany is not the well-functioning, environmentally super-conscious, high-tech nation it used to be. You go to a train station, half the trains are cancelled, the other half is delayed, the escalators are broken, the announcements are barely audible, and in the unlikely event that you can connect to the Wi-Fi it’s so slow that by the time the news is streaming it’s become a historical documentary. Or maybe it’s quantum Wi-Fi, collapses the moment you touch it.
[...] At the moment, it’s something that we joke about inside the country, how crap things have become. Like a recent commentary in a major German newspaper about the malfunctioning German railway that was a disaster during the European Football Championship.
The author concluded with saying, well, the most environmentally friendly train is one that doesn’t drive. Or the guy who bought an electric vehicle and couldn’t find a charging place that actually worked, who concluded that if you buy an electric vehicle in Germany also buy a dog so that you don’t have to walk home alone.
[...] The internet problems have a similar cause, lack of investment at the time when it was necessary. Instead of switching to fiber optics long ago, the German government supported upgrading the existing copper cable connections. Big mistake. They’re now trying to fix it, but we’re far behind.
Same problem with the switch to electric vehicles or renewables. The Germans were too slow to make decisions. [...] Germans are stereotypical thorough and pay attention to detail and do everything very, very precisely.
[...] This dedication to thoroughness and precision is why the German industry is renowned for high quality products. It’s also in the past saved us from a lot of follies. ... Those were all cases where “lets wait and see” saved Germany time and money.
But the world is now changing so fast that “let’s wait and see” is no longer an intelligent strategy. A good illustration for how German thoroughness can get in the way is what they call “Technologieoffenheit” over here. In English, that’d be “technology openness” and it basically means that the government throws tax money at any idiotic idea they can find. It’s basically:
[...] And I haven’t even yet mentioned the biggest idiocy of this technology openness, which was to phase out nuclear power and bank on a non-existing hydrogen economy. ... If this hydrogen business doesn’t work out, Germany will get stuck on fossil fuels, and that is becoming increasingly unappealing for investors.
I think the Germany government is making a big mistake. Banking on hydrogen is really delay game. It that tells us they believe climate change will magically go away. They’re slow, to realize that we can’t avoid decarbonization and the more we delay it, the more this country will go downhills.
And that’s why I’m embarrassed to be German. Because the Germans are so slow...
Why I'm embarrassed to be German
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/W1ZZ-Yni8Fg
- - - - - - - - - -
https://youtu.be/W1ZZ-Yni8Fg
VIDEO EXCERPTS: I never thought I would say this, but I’m embarrassed to be German...
Germany is not the well-functioning, environmentally super-conscious, high-tech nation it used to be. You go to a train station, half the trains are cancelled, the other half is delayed, the escalators are broken, the announcements are barely audible, and in the unlikely event that you can connect to the Wi-Fi it’s so slow that by the time the news is streaming it’s become a historical documentary. Or maybe it’s quantum Wi-Fi, collapses the moment you touch it.
[...] At the moment, it’s something that we joke about inside the country, how crap things have become. Like a recent commentary in a major German newspaper about the malfunctioning German railway that was a disaster during the European Football Championship.
The author concluded with saying, well, the most environmentally friendly train is one that doesn’t drive. Or the guy who bought an electric vehicle and couldn’t find a charging place that actually worked, who concluded that if you buy an electric vehicle in Germany also buy a dog so that you don’t have to walk home alone.
[...] The internet problems have a similar cause, lack of investment at the time when it was necessary. Instead of switching to fiber optics long ago, the German government supported upgrading the existing copper cable connections. Big mistake. They’re now trying to fix it, but we’re far behind.
Same problem with the switch to electric vehicles or renewables. The Germans were too slow to make decisions. [...] Germans are stereotypical thorough and pay attention to detail and do everything very, very precisely.
[...] This dedication to thoroughness and precision is why the German industry is renowned for high quality products. It’s also in the past saved us from a lot of follies. ... Those were all cases where “lets wait and see” saved Germany time and money.
But the world is now changing so fast that “let’s wait and see” is no longer an intelligent strategy. A good illustration for how German thoroughness can get in the way is what they call “Technologieoffenheit” over here. In English, that’d be “technology openness” and it basically means that the government throws tax money at any idiotic idea they can find. It’s basically:
[...] And I haven’t even yet mentioned the biggest idiocy of this technology openness, which was to phase out nuclear power and bank on a non-existing hydrogen economy. ... If this hydrogen business doesn’t work out, Germany will get stuck on fossil fuels, and that is becoming increasingly unappealing for investors.
I think the Germany government is making a big mistake. Banking on hydrogen is really delay game. It that tells us they believe climate change will magically go away. They’re slow, to realize that we can’t avoid decarbonization and the more we delay it, the more this country will go downhills.
And that’s why I’m embarrassed to be German. Because the Germans are so slow...
Why I'm embarrassed to be German