Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED

Whirling_Cloudburst@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 927 points – Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED
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The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

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Capitalism never chooses the best path, but neither does any other system. We haven’t invented a perfect system, and it’s probably impossible. Sounds like a strange critique since we’ll never reach perfection

Just because nothing is perfect doesn't mean we can't call out stuff for not being it. Sounds like a strange critique since we're supposed to improve on things.

Yes, but in any system some guy will decide which research is important. And that guy can't possibly make correct decisions every time.

I don't see a way to improve on it

And that guy can’t possibly make correct decisions every time.

Doesn't matter. What matters is that they make correct decisions oftener than before.

And the way to improve on it is clear: do more of that, with peer review.

Come on this is not news, this is how progress has worked in the last [checks smudgy writing] 4600 years.

Then invest in a company that is structured that way, there's no actual constraint on how a company is organized in capitalism