Excellent essay. I've had my work ripped off by the Chinese, who duplicated the book I wrote in my field. I made the mistake of retaining the copyright, but even if I hadn't, it was published by a university press and I'm sure they don't have the resources to pursue an international lawsuit any more than I do. It doesn't seem to have hurt my career or my reputation, but it was annoying. And they weren't even subtle about it. I taught a short course from that book and, to my surprise, every student in the course had a pirated copy. I think rule-bending is a hallmark of the kinds of groups that form institutions like ICUBE. Rules are there only for THEIR convenience to serve THEIR purposes. If they perceive that you are a white oppressor, then ripping off one of your essays is perfectly legitimate in order to expose you.
Leigh, as you correctly noted, the explicit goal of this “enterprise” is Intervention - by breaking natural laws, traditional merit-based laws of academia, and (given your last point) copyright laws. Thus, at least mathematically, the I-CUBE name is rather appropriate.
Jaguar messed up the design of their once-gorgeous sedans. And their ad is truly abysmal.
Successful entrepreneurship depends on MEI (merit, intelligence, excellence), not DEI, which is fortunately starting to encounter serious opposition, at least in the US.
In Canada, the good news is that our woke, juvenile, egotistical PM Trudeau is a goner by next October, latest.
I hope you are correct. As a Canuck living south of the 49th and watching Canada devolve in a pronounced negative direction with some measure of dismay, I wonder. My sources back in the Great White North are predicting that Trudeau (or Justin Castro or whatever we call him) will use any means at his avail to retain power. He does not really care what the courts or the public say or think, clearly. Would anyone dispute that?
Will it take a foreign intervention and possibly an assassination to get this jackass out of office? I am not sure. A military coup is probably out of the question given how anemic the Canadian military is now.
I know that "Jim Crow" Justin the known pedophile and frequenter of Diddy parties probably anticipates facing a lot of challenges once he leaves office. So why would he give up his office? Does he really care what or who the people vote for in an election? I would not be so sure.
Another point I might make is the condition of intellectual property.
Various reforms of patent law have made patents, at least in the US, almost counter productive for most small innovators. Patents are basically a license to sue, but if you do not have the resources, you are unlikely to succeed. And the recent law changes have tipped the balance considerably to the advantage of large enterprises.
I am not sure, but perhaps IP law governing things like patents and copyrights and trademarks etc. are in need of some revisiting. They do not seem to suit their original intended purposes.
I lived the first couple of decades of my life in Canada. I then sought out the more contentious but somewhat greener pastures of "Mankind's Last Best Hope", the "Shining City On A Hill", a superpower and World's self-appointed Policeman, the "Leader of the Free World", the "Empire of Liberty", the "Indispensable Nation", with "American Exceptionalism" coursing through its veins, that country South of the 49th parallel.
I did this partly because I wanted to observe what made the US different from the "True North Strong and Free" (aka "The Great White North"), and other former members of the British Empire. What was the source of this clear dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit?
It has been a complicated and chaotic learning experience. My father, a serial entrepreneur, was somewhat crestfallen that I had decided to stay in what he called "The United Snakes". And from some perspective, Trump's derogatory comments about "s-hole countries" left one out; the US itself (which I sometimes refer to as "The Real Evil Empire").
I now can compare what I see going on in Canada with what I observe going on all around me, particularly in the entrepreneurial sphere. Canada for some reason does not quite understand the value of entrepreneurship, and how to harness it. Canada has exported a lot of its talent for many decades to the US or Europe. Alexander Graham Bell's family and Thomas Edison's family have some Canadian roots, as do many others.
I noticed a "business incubator" set up by my alma mater back in Canada. But when I investigated, I discovered that it was just a building that was mostly full of University bureaucracy, and few startups or entrepreneurs to speak of. And not only that, but the University was charging fees which were considerably higher than what one would pay for commercial office space in the city. They really had no idea what an "incubator" was, except someone had read somewhere that in the US, there was lots of money involved, and these idiots wanted to grab some of it for themselves. And of course, it was failing miserably.
My mentor returned back to Canada to take a "Canada Chair". The Canada Chairs were meant to offer world class salaries and benefits to entice Canadian academics to return to Canada. However, my mentor had only been there for a couple of years when the reality started to sink in. The government seized all the Canada Chairs to dole them out to those from various intersectionality and social justice categories. So my mentor was promptly booted from his position since he was a white male.
A couple of years ago, I went to listen to a lecture by an occupant of a Canada Chair sponsored by the American Institute of Physics. The topic of the lecture was more or less about how to remove white males from academia so these positions could be filled with "more worthy" victims of White Supremacy and the patriarchy, such as women and BIPOC people. As I have previously mentioned, I am BIPOC but I reject any preferences this identification might accord me.
One of the stated goals of this lecture was to discuss how to get more black males into physics faculty positions. I made several private suggestions to the person moderating this lecture, a completely illiterate incompetent that the AIP had hired to manage their DEI program. I suggested that we look back a century or more ago when Black Physicists from this geographic area were far more successful in academia, government and corporate R&D than they are presently.
I was promptly expelled from the lecture, with no explanation. I sent my summary of my suggestions to numerous fellow professional physicists, and not a single one could see how I had caused offense. So much for trying to actually make serious progress on this question. No, it did not suit the narrative of just pushing unprepared candidates with no discernible merit into positions by force and fiat.
My mentor has a long list of patents to his credit; dozens and dozens. Some of these cover technology in which tens of billions have been invested, and some cover technology in which tens of trillions have been invested. So he knows a thing or two about technology and patents and their commercial value.
While at his new position as a chaired professor at a prominent Canadian university, my mentor had another insight. And so, since he knows something about the value of these things, he visited the intellectual property office on campus to see about getting a patent issued.
He astounded at the reception he received. The person running this intellectual property office was nominally a patent attorney. And since filing for a patent entails a lot of effort, the attorney was not particularly interested in assisting in the writing and filing of a patent.
What the attorney did instead was to chew out my mentor up one side and down the other for being an idiot. He told him that every idea he had ever had, including this new one, were completely worthless horse-pucky. And he knew better, since he was an attorney who had actually never done anything whatsoever in his supposed field of expertise.
I have had some interactions with my alma mater over the last few years. One of the things I have noticed is that the bureaucracy and administrative staff have ballooned considerably over the last few years, and particularly since I graduated decades ago. I also noticed what their "secret plans" were for the future of the university.
These administrative nincompoops thought that their jobs would be permanently secured if they made a massive marketing effort in China. They thought they could entice thousands of Chinese students to a sort of middling university up on the tundra, and charge them immense fees. And the Chinese would gladly pay these obscene costs.
And these administrators would therefore all be rich and comfortable forever. There was no thought to improving the quality of instruction or the quality of research or the faculty. No, those things were all not important because the Chinese would supposedly be willing to pay huge amounts to attend a school surrounded by lots of "superior European types" with a few First Nations and black and East Indian immigrants thrown into the mix. These same characters of course sign on whole-heartedly to the DEI agenda to replace all those superior European types, because they view themselves as quite woke and sensitive and so on. It was all sort of a load of nonsense, from what I could tell.
I am working on creating a startup doing R&D. I was thinking about locating some of the facilities in Canada (and possibly in Australia as well). However, as I watch Canada and Australia fall all over themselves to make their countries as unappealing as possible, for entrepreneurship or anything else, I am having second thoughts.
I was reminded by this essay of a quote from Stephen Wolfram, some years ago.
Wolfram said something like "Academics are terrible thieves". This was after his unpleasant experience with SMP (Symbolic Manipulation Package) at Caltech and some other awful stuff. He eventually became disgusted enough that he resigned his triple faculty appointment and just retreated to continue his various projects in a commercial framework.
I notice that the internet does not really appreciate who and what Wolfram is, what he has accomplished and contributed, and what he has been through. He is far more talented than almost all of the critics who are casting aspersions his way.
But, he is an example of a very successful entrepreneur, which almost no one gives him credit for.
Excellent essay. I've had my work ripped off by the Chinese, who duplicated the book I wrote in my field. I made the mistake of retaining the copyright, but even if I hadn't, it was published by a university press and I'm sure they don't have the resources to pursue an international lawsuit any more than I do. It doesn't seem to have hurt my career or my reputation, but it was annoying. And they weren't even subtle about it. I taught a short course from that book and, to my surprise, every student in the course had a pirated copy. I think rule-bending is a hallmark of the kinds of groups that form institutions like ICUBE. Rules are there only for THEIR convenience to serve THEIR purposes. If they perceive that you are a white oppressor, then ripping off one of your essays is perfectly legitimate in order to expose you.
Leigh, as you correctly noted, the explicit goal of this “enterprise” is Intervention - by breaking natural laws, traditional merit-based laws of academia, and (given your last point) copyright laws. Thus, at least mathematically, the I-CUBE name is rather appropriate.
Jaguar messed up the design of their once-gorgeous sedans. And their ad is truly abysmal.
Successful entrepreneurship depends on MEI (merit, intelligence, excellence), not DEI, which is fortunately starting to encounter serious opposition, at least in the US.
In Canada, the good news is that our woke, juvenile, egotistical PM Trudeau is a goner by next October, latest.
Good article.
I can’t wait to vote against Trudeau.
Me too.
:-)
I hope you are correct. As a Canuck living south of the 49th and watching Canada devolve in a pronounced negative direction with some measure of dismay, I wonder. My sources back in the Great White North are predicting that Trudeau (or Justin Castro or whatever we call him) will use any means at his avail to retain power. He does not really care what the courts or the public say or think, clearly. Would anyone dispute that?
Will it take a foreign intervention and possibly an assassination to get this jackass out of office? I am not sure. A military coup is probably out of the question given how anemic the Canadian military is now.
I know that "Jim Crow" Justin the known pedophile and frequenter of Diddy parties probably anticipates facing a lot of challenges once he leaves office. So why would he give up his office? Does he really care what or who the people vote for in an election? I would not be so sure.
Another point I might make is the condition of intellectual property.
Various reforms of patent law have made patents, at least in the US, almost counter productive for most small innovators. Patents are basically a license to sue, but if you do not have the resources, you are unlikely to succeed. And the recent law changes have tipped the balance considerably to the advantage of large enterprises.
I am not sure, but perhaps IP law governing things like patents and copyrights and trademarks etc. are in need of some revisiting. They do not seem to suit their original intended purposes.
I lived the first couple of decades of my life in Canada. I then sought out the more contentious but somewhat greener pastures of "Mankind's Last Best Hope", the "Shining City On A Hill", a superpower and World's self-appointed Policeman, the "Leader of the Free World", the "Empire of Liberty", the "Indispensable Nation", with "American Exceptionalism" coursing through its veins, that country South of the 49th parallel.
I did this partly because I wanted to observe what made the US different from the "True North Strong and Free" (aka "The Great White North"), and other former members of the British Empire. What was the source of this clear dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit?
It has been a complicated and chaotic learning experience. My father, a serial entrepreneur, was somewhat crestfallen that I had decided to stay in what he called "The United Snakes". And from some perspective, Trump's derogatory comments about "s-hole countries" left one out; the US itself (which I sometimes refer to as "The Real Evil Empire").
I now can compare what I see going on in Canada with what I observe going on all around me, particularly in the entrepreneurial sphere. Canada for some reason does not quite understand the value of entrepreneurship, and how to harness it. Canada has exported a lot of its talent for many decades to the US or Europe. Alexander Graham Bell's family and Thomas Edison's family have some Canadian roots, as do many others.
I noticed a "business incubator" set up by my alma mater back in Canada. But when I investigated, I discovered that it was just a building that was mostly full of University bureaucracy, and few startups or entrepreneurs to speak of. And not only that, but the University was charging fees which were considerably higher than what one would pay for commercial office space in the city. They really had no idea what an "incubator" was, except someone had read somewhere that in the US, there was lots of money involved, and these idiots wanted to grab some of it for themselves. And of course, it was failing miserably.
My mentor returned back to Canada to take a "Canada Chair". The Canada Chairs were meant to offer world class salaries and benefits to entice Canadian academics to return to Canada. However, my mentor had only been there for a couple of years when the reality started to sink in. The government seized all the Canada Chairs to dole them out to those from various intersectionality and social justice categories. So my mentor was promptly booted from his position since he was a white male.
A couple of years ago, I went to listen to a lecture by an occupant of a Canada Chair sponsored by the American Institute of Physics. The topic of the lecture was more or less about how to remove white males from academia so these positions could be filled with "more worthy" victims of White Supremacy and the patriarchy, such as women and BIPOC people. As I have previously mentioned, I am BIPOC but I reject any preferences this identification might accord me.
One of the stated goals of this lecture was to discuss how to get more black males into physics faculty positions. I made several private suggestions to the person moderating this lecture, a completely illiterate incompetent that the AIP had hired to manage their DEI program. I suggested that we look back a century or more ago when Black Physicists from this geographic area were far more successful in academia, government and corporate R&D than they are presently.
I was promptly expelled from the lecture, with no explanation. I sent my summary of my suggestions to numerous fellow professional physicists, and not a single one could see how I had caused offense. So much for trying to actually make serious progress on this question. No, it did not suit the narrative of just pushing unprepared candidates with no discernible merit into positions by force and fiat.
My mentor has a long list of patents to his credit; dozens and dozens. Some of these cover technology in which tens of billions have been invested, and some cover technology in which tens of trillions have been invested. So he knows a thing or two about technology and patents and their commercial value.
While at his new position as a chaired professor at a prominent Canadian university, my mentor had another insight. And so, since he knows something about the value of these things, he visited the intellectual property office on campus to see about getting a patent issued.
He astounded at the reception he received. The person running this intellectual property office was nominally a patent attorney. And since filing for a patent entails a lot of effort, the attorney was not particularly interested in assisting in the writing and filing of a patent.
What the attorney did instead was to chew out my mentor up one side and down the other for being an idiot. He told him that every idea he had ever had, including this new one, were completely worthless horse-pucky. And he knew better, since he was an attorney who had actually never done anything whatsoever in his supposed field of expertise.
I have had some interactions with my alma mater over the last few years. One of the things I have noticed is that the bureaucracy and administrative staff have ballooned considerably over the last few years, and particularly since I graduated decades ago. I also noticed what their "secret plans" were for the future of the university.
These administrative nincompoops thought that their jobs would be permanently secured if they made a massive marketing effort in China. They thought they could entice thousands of Chinese students to a sort of middling university up on the tundra, and charge them immense fees. And the Chinese would gladly pay these obscene costs.
And these administrators would therefore all be rich and comfortable forever. There was no thought to improving the quality of instruction or the quality of research or the faculty. No, those things were all not important because the Chinese would supposedly be willing to pay huge amounts to attend a school surrounded by lots of "superior European types" with a few First Nations and black and East Indian immigrants thrown into the mix. These same characters of course sign on whole-heartedly to the DEI agenda to replace all those superior European types, because they view themselves as quite woke and sensitive and so on. It was all sort of a load of nonsense, from what I could tell.
I am working on creating a startup doing R&D. I was thinking about locating some of the facilities in Canada (and possibly in Australia as well). However, as I watch Canada and Australia fall all over themselves to make their countries as unappealing as possible, for entrepreneurship or anything else, I am having second thoughts.
I was reminded by this essay of a quote from Stephen Wolfram, some years ago.
Wolfram said something like "Academics are terrible thieves". This was after his unpleasant experience with SMP (Symbolic Manipulation Package) at Caltech and some other awful stuff. He eventually became disgusted enough that he resigned his triple faculty appointment and just retreated to continue his various projects in a commercial framework.
I notice that the internet does not really appreciate who and what Wolfram is, what he has accomplished and contributed, and what he has been through. He is far more talented than almost all of the critics who are casting aspersions his way.
But, he is an example of a very successful entrepreneur, which almost no one gives him credit for.