"We must accept the resulting multipolar world, regulated by UN Charter! We are still an innovative nation - GPS, Internet, AI etc. WE INVENTED! "
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Frenchman here. I'd like to stress that this statement you made is a sign of US blindness. For in fact, the US did not quite invent those things. GPS? Yes, American development, but France dev…
"We must accept the resulting multipolar world, regulated by UN Charter! We are still an innovative nation - GPS, Internet, AI etc. WE INVENTED! "
.
Frenchman here. I'd like to stress that this statement you made is a sign of US blindness. For in fact, the US did not quite invent those things. GPS? Yes, American development, but France developed the first similar constellation 15 years before, it was the ARGOS positioning system, still used to help rescue ships at sea. Less precise, unfit for all the advanced uses of GPS, but the same stuff actually, only with earlier technologies and capabilities. Internet? The IP protocol was invented by a British engineer working at CERN, an international institution based in Switzerland and France. Also, France had its own Minitel network, using different tech but meant to allow instantaneous computer-based communication, which was in widespread use in French households several years before the US military started sharing its network tech with a few university labs. It's also France's Alcatel, formerly a state company, who invented the ADSL protocol which made fast internet for all on a worldwide scale possible. AI? Well, Alan Turing was not American, and many researchers from many countries developed AI.
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My point is this: the US once had real talent to find revolutionary use for technologies being developed elsewhere, and to put in the necessary resources to turn those technologies into meaningful social and economic change. That's quite an important talent.
Unfortunately, the narrative that came to fill the brains of American people was much simpler: "we invented it". And therefore, "we" can do it alone and others must follow. The problem with this narrative is that you did not invent it, and therefore you'd do much better to acknowledge the role of others and to keep working in good cooperation with others, than to treat them as inferiors and to think you can do it alone.
But the saddest part of this story, is that American elites were the ones to believe the narrative to the fullest extent. It made them so full of themselves, that they are now incapable to see how mistaken it is. So instead, some other power will have to demonstrate that they can do it better and faster than the US. That's what China has been working on for 3 decades. And contrary to the US, they at least do it with a discourse towards others that's all about sharing the benefits of their effort. I do not claim that the Chinese are sincere, but that is what they tell their friends. The US does not even do this any more.
I specify: I am also French (I had written "a French citizen" but the adjective was forgotten).
I add to what Pierre says that American vanity has been encouraged by the submission of the European elites, and in particular the French, to American domination. Why this submission? A sort of inferiority complex following the Second World War: the image of the "liberating GI" that must not be questioned, especially if the real winner of the German army is the ugly Soviet muzhik.
To confirm my point, I will simply recall the cries of appalled virgins that all those who claim to be the elite uttered when General de Gaulle told NATO: "Out! And when he did not align himself with American positions, he was called a KGB agent.
The mistake of the Americans is to consider that an ally must always agree with them. But this mistake is also shared by their allies.
All good points, but also consider that for an American "invented" and "commercialized" are almost synonymous. Google Facebook, Apple, Twitter etc., invented themselves into existence from the ether with no prior work done by anyone else.
Apple... not true. Apple is a company who's been doing its business by assembling tech invented by others, as to offer integrated final products that offered an advanced and reliable service they could market with high profit margins. It's the story behind the Apple I and II, the iPod, or the iPhone. And Apple OS are UNIX-derived.
The 3 others are in fact service companies. Google made its success by offering a service they didn't invent, but through a technology they invented and that was more effective than the competition. Facebook or Twitter sure invented their service, although not out of the blue and taking inspiration from others, and as for the tech they use, some is their own but a lot of bricks are not.
For the rest, the scale and often pro-monopolistic nature of the US market helped them a lot on their way to become world giants. It does not mean their tech or their product is always better than what others can invent.
"We must accept the resulting multipolar world, regulated by UN Charter! We are still an innovative nation - GPS, Internet, AI etc. WE INVENTED! "
.
Frenchman here. I'd like to stress that this statement you made is a sign of US blindness. For in fact, the US did not quite invent those things. GPS? Yes, American development, but France developed the first similar constellation 15 years before, it was the ARGOS positioning system, still used to help rescue ships at sea. Less precise, unfit for all the advanced uses of GPS, but the same stuff actually, only with earlier technologies and capabilities. Internet? The IP protocol was invented by a British engineer working at CERN, an international institution based in Switzerland and France. Also, France had its own Minitel network, using different tech but meant to allow instantaneous computer-based communication, which was in widespread use in French households several years before the US military started sharing its network tech with a few university labs. It's also France's Alcatel, formerly a state company, who invented the ADSL protocol which made fast internet for all on a worldwide scale possible. AI? Well, Alan Turing was not American, and many researchers from many countries developed AI.
.
My point is this: the US once had real talent to find revolutionary use for technologies being developed elsewhere, and to put in the necessary resources to turn those technologies into meaningful social and economic change. That's quite an important talent.
Unfortunately, the narrative that came to fill the brains of American people was much simpler: "we invented it". And therefore, "we" can do it alone and others must follow. The problem with this narrative is that you did not invent it, and therefore you'd do much better to acknowledge the role of others and to keep working in good cooperation with others, than to treat them as inferiors and to think you can do it alone.
But the saddest part of this story, is that American elites were the ones to believe the narrative to the fullest extent. It made them so full of themselves, that they are now incapable to see how mistaken it is. So instead, some other power will have to demonstrate that they can do it better and faster than the US. That's what China has been working on for 3 decades. And contrary to the US, they at least do it with a discourse towards others that's all about sharing the benefits of their effort. I do not claim that the Chinese are sincere, but that is what they tell their friends. The US does not even do this any more.
I specify: I am also French (I had written "a French citizen" but the adjective was forgotten).
I add to what Pierre says that American vanity has been encouraged by the submission of the European elites, and in particular the French, to American domination. Why this submission? A sort of inferiority complex following the Second World War: the image of the "liberating GI" that must not be questioned, especially if the real winner of the German army is the ugly Soviet muzhik.
To confirm my point, I will simply recall the cries of appalled virgins that all those who claim to be the elite uttered when General de Gaulle told NATO: "Out! And when he did not align himself with American positions, he was called a KGB agent.
The mistake of the Americans is to consider that an ally must always agree with them. But this mistake is also shared by their allies.
Thanks for that information, which is new to me!
All good points, but also consider that for an American "invented" and "commercialized" are almost synonymous. Google Facebook, Apple, Twitter etc., invented themselves into existence from the ether with no prior work done by anyone else.
Apple... not true. Apple is a company who's been doing its business by assembling tech invented by others, as to offer integrated final products that offered an advanced and reliable service they could market with high profit margins. It's the story behind the Apple I and II, the iPod, or the iPhone. And Apple OS are UNIX-derived.
The 3 others are in fact service companies. Google made its success by offering a service they didn't invent, but through a technology they invented and that was more effective than the competition. Facebook or Twitter sure invented their service, although not out of the blue and taking inspiration from others, and as for the tech they use, some is their own but a lot of bricks are not.
For the rest, the scale and often pro-monopolistic nature of the US market helped them a lot on their way to become world giants. It does not mean their tech or their product is always better than what others can invent.
I assumed that my use of the word "ether" would signal that I was not being serious.