> --
> On Wed, 13 May 1998 13:40:29 -0400 Michael Lorrey <retroman@together.net>
> writes:
> Dan wrote:
>
> >> I'm not saying you do benefit from having competitors. Indeed, it's
> >> primarily us consumers who benefit from your competition.
> >
> >SO you admit it. However, you don't seem to answer the question as to
> why anyone
> >would invent anything if they didn't get paid for it. Name me one
> civilization in
> >which there was a similar level of invention as there currently is in
> the present
> >day, yet did not protect the intellectual property of inventors? You
> can't can
> >you?
>
> Com'n, Michael. Name me one civilization in which there
> was a similar level of invention as there currently is in the
> present day, *period*! This isn't a matter of patent protection,
> but the scientific method, and books.
The scientific method developed in the Renaissance period in response to the
beginnings of patent law in the city states of europe, where princes, Doge's
etc. needed a policy which would encourage inventive individuals to commit to
selling new technologies for weapons of war only to a single Sovereign. The
Patent protected legally the inventor from being litterally 'screwed' in the
sovereigns dungeons in order to keep the technology secret. Remember, this
was a time when guns were beginning to become available, as well as cannon,
etc., a revolution in miltary technology was underway due to the competition
between the city states and principalities on the battle field. One of the
best known of these inventors was Leonardo Da Vinci, who had to develop a
secret code system in which he became so fluent that he could write by hand
while viewing his text through a mirror in order to maintain the security of
his workbooks.
The scientific method followed later as a method of scientific discovery and
experimentation merely to make a more efficient system for research than the
existing hit and miss system of guesswork.
I htink that it would be safe to say that we owe both the concept of
intellectual property and the scientific method to one invention that
preceded them: gunpowder.
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?