Friday, November 13, 2009
Cardwell's Law
Cardwell's law suggests that an technologically advanced, creative society cannot sustain this action for long. I would venture to say that one of the reasons that the Indian nation is on the forefront of this creativity swing. With over 1 billion people there is plenty of reason to think that the creativity upswing could be great. But as Joel Mokyr puts it, the technological creativity is mearly the engine for development. Other things, such as capital accumulation, skills, motivation, and a well functioning market are all important to make this creative development possible. Maybe the reason India has exploded in such a way is that it started to get the other important elements. The population could have had all of these creative ideas, but an engine without a car base goes no where. Only after the declaration of Indian freedom did the GDP of the nation increase ten fold. The previous 50 years, GDP only grew by 20 Million. This staggering difference, i propose, is the direct effect of the new capital accumulation, skills and a functioning market system. So does this technological advancement of India have a limited number of days? Or does this law no longer effect nations in this way?
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5 comments:
I dont think Cardwells law is relevant any more because of the changing environment in which things take place. The internet and its ability to create a continuous flow of ideas is one reason why.
Yes, The internet and it's continuous flow of ideas is a major portion of the transformation being seen. Also with the massive rise in population many ideas are coming forth from many different people. The ideas of two people are much stronger and persuasive than the ideas of a single resident.
An influx of ideas is bound to boost the social and economical status of any nation or region. Take the birth of the united states for example; the US, in it's early years, experienced exponential growth because of all the ideas and cultures coming together. Out of the "melting pot" of people emerged modern democracy and countless other innovations and discoveries. I believe India is going through a similar situation. However, these periods cannot be sustained. for whatever reason, due to burnout, a growing placidity in the general public, or increased comfort in status quo with less interest to revolutionize the world.
I don't agree with either of the past two points. Yes there may be a huge population gap and the thoughts of "two people over one resident" may help ideas, but innovations are different then ideas. Ideas mearly move tech ideas but innovation changes the way things are done. I really think the melting pot of people diddnt help, it actually hurt the potental output because of the squabbles within innovaters. This caused pattons and other premtive measure that have since killed innovation. Maybe the lack of restriction actually helpped to create the innovation and the people were just along for the ride.
I think Cardwell's law is still relevant even in today's society with the Internet. Now the law is obsolete when you think about one nation holding all aspects of technology, but when yo think of technology overall as being segmented, Cardwells law is relevant. Look at Japan leading the world in advanced robotics or America's role as a leader in medical research. I think that India can be accredited as being one of the leading countries in fighting poverty. A major reason could be because they have so much poverty to start out with but you look at what they are doing and you can only imagine what it took to accomplish these things. They are in the middle of inventing a car that has a retail value of $2500, they are genetically modifying grains to produce higher yields, and they are working at producing sustainable energy from hydro-power dams and windmills. (Kamdar, Mira. Planet India, 2007). You can look at these new innovations and think, "India doesn't seem to be getting better" The reality is that after decades of being neglected, the slums of India have grown out of control. The extent of the problem is unimaginable. You could also argue that there are large amounts of poverty in most countries in Africa, why arn't these countries also great at fightig poverty? My answer is because those countries don't have the infrastructure that India has. Not only does India have a relativly new government, it also has a prety amazing education system. It also helps that outsorcing in India is providing a stedy flow of money into India from other countries. Yes you could argue that anyone can get information from the internet but that doesn't change the fact that some countries are better than others at certain things.
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