A few years ago I attended a marketing lecture given by a very respected designer. One element of his presentation was his assertion that there are many, many items which have been invented and even perfected BUT which will not see the market - either because (1) the average person couldn't handle them, or (2) their sale would ruin other established markets.
(1) knife blades so sharp that you only have to rest the knife on a tomato and it would slice through with no pressure (goodbye fingers) (2) an ointment that safely kills hair follicles and eliminates the need for ever shaving again (goodbye electric razor, blade and cream sales)
I don't think he was spouting urban myths and I have no doubt that crass corporate self-interests would support his cynicism. I just wonder what's out there waiting to be sprung when someone thinks the time is right?
(Very reminiscent of the old tale from the 50s about the man who demonstrated he could turn water into gasoline and then got on a train and was never seen again. Probably eliminated by the petroninjas!)
Lots of little drug research companies can cook up new cancer drugs in their laboratories. Only the big drug manufacturers have the resources to fund the clinical trials necessary to get FDA approval for a new drug. Sometimes, a new drug will show lots of promise. But the manufacturer will shelve the drug because it would make their LAST cancer drug obsolete, and they haven't made enough money from it yet to recover the cost of getting it to market - unless a competitor is about to launch a product better than their old one. Meanwhile, people are dying that could be saved by the new drug. On the one hand, it looks immoral to put profits ahead of the needs of dying people. On the other hand, if they couldn't make money, they would go out of business and no one would be able to fund the studies. Issues that appear to be black and white seldom are.
DonkeyHody "We can't all be heros because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." - Will Rogers
In a similar vein, sometimes when researchers are looking for something like a new cancer drug, they accidentally stumble across something that shows promise for treating anther, much rarer condition. If the market for this potential discovery isn't big enough to warrant the R&D investment, it does not get pursued.
If there were a real market, it would make it out. While there may be an element of truth in the claims, it's unlikely this miracle product, whatever it might be, would be producible at a competitive price or not have some other problem or somebody would be doing it...there are an awful lot of bright folks out there.
Despite how that may have sounded to you, I'm really not a conspiracy theorist in the least. The problem is so well documented that the the federal government passed legislation giving incentives to drug companies to encourage them not to let such discoveries go undeveloped.
You should rent "The Man in the White Suit" with Alec Guinness...plot summary from IMDB: A man invents a fabric that won't get dirty or wear out, but he seems to have made more enemies than friends in the process....
Sure there are things that don't warrant the investment from a purely economic standpoint. Unless there's some way to support the research that's a problem no commercial venture can afford (at least indefinitely). I mistook the intent given the previous, sorry...
And I confess that until I did some googling to support what I said, I didn't realize that quite a bit *has* apparently been done to minimize the problem.
element of truth in the claims, it's unlikely this >miracle product, whatever it might be, would be producible at a >competitive price or not have some other problem or somebody >would be doing it...there are an awful lot of bright folks out >there.
I agree. While I am sure that huge manufacturing concerns have bought out their competitors and their product since time immemorial, I don't think good product stand much of a chance of being on the sidelines anymore. I think too many companies are too hungry and the chance to make a buck is too much to resist.
I think we believe what we want to, especially if we are feeling a little screwed about something. I remember in the 70s when we had the first gas crunch, it really changed the way people looked at gas. It became a precious commodity. Then somewhere along the late 70s, early
80s, all of us "in the know" KNEW that Bill Lear, the genius inventor had an 80+ mpg carburetor that was a simple bolt on to any car. In fact (the irony was lost on me at the time) the myth went that they tried it on Chevy trucks (wow.. I was driving a 3/4 ton Chevy at the time that got a solid 10 mpg) and it worked!
But then GM found out about it and bought it for almost 100 million dollars, because we found out that General Motors owned the oil companies. Yup, the job site brain trust was able to come up with a good theory in spite of a lack of facts.
I later saw Bill Lear's wife and his best friend on a documentary/ biography and they even talked about the 90 mpg carburetor. They had both heard of it, both got a chuckle out of it, and were amazed that it had such legs. They both said the same thing: Bill invented faster than he could come up with a money source to try out his ideas, and he was ALWAYS cash poor.
They were both in complete agreement that if Bill had come up with something that important, he would have sold it in a heartbeat. And since this guy was at his side for soemthing like 20 years, he felt like he would have known about a project that had actually gone to live testing.
But we sure "knew" that to be true for about 20 years. And there for a while it resurfaced every time we had a spike in gas price.
Straight razor won't do that. Neither will a boron fiber, which _will_ take your fingers off if you're not careful with it.
Most men wouldn't buy it regardless--it closes the option of growing a beard if one should want to. Women get this done with some regularity by another process.
Don't believe everything you hear in a lecture.
If he demonstrated it then the "petroninjas" would have jumped on it and if it was a cheaper production method than pumping it out of the ground started using it. Since such a discovery would violate several principles of chemistry and physics though such claims unless supported by hard evidence must be taken as urban legends.
element of truth in the claims, it's unlikely this >miracle product, whatever it might be, would be producible at a >competitive price or not have some other problem or somebody >would be doing it...there are an awful lot of bright folks out >there.
One of the most efficient ways to move people in large quantities (over land, not water) is steel wheels on rails. Trams (streetcars) are the best example. Many cities in the US had very advanced trams systems (Chicago, for instance). Yet the deal schmoozed out between the man Firestone and one the US presidents (forgot which one) suddenly found the sale of tires and fuel more important and the whole transportation system went for crap just to sell rubber and. Big industry very often influences bad decisions propelled by their greed and executed by their campaign donations.in fact, entire wars. Peace is easier and cheaper to negotiate but doesn't sell hardware. So, if a palm-sized cold fusion power source ever became available, it wouldn't see the light of day.
r-----> aka as Zebco6-ultralight... unless I'm stumping for bass.
OTOH, I was pretty certain, when I was about five, that those square wooden wheels I put on the first tubafour "car" I made were so easy to make that they would revolutionize the toy car business ...
So... finish the story. Were you bought out by GM? Did they screw you because you were five? Are you secretly using your weatlh from that sale to buy new router accessories while depriving the American public of one of the worlds (potentially) greatest inventions?
Knowing the state of the auto industry, I am sure your invention (hmmmmm.... square wheels, you say... why didn't I think of that? I think at five I was still eating dirt, not sure) would easily make it through R&D and testing.
Just think - who needs ABS brakes when you have "Swing's Square Wheels"?
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