China's not blocking out the sharing of ideas though. Until a few months ago, Andrew Ng worked at Baidu!
They are isolating data, but hoarding data is a competitive advantage in a way that isolating knowledge isn't.
Re:China Blocks WhatsApp
by chaostheory on Monday September 25, 2017 @07:18PM
(#15334946)
> China's not blocking out the sharing of ideas though. Until a few months ago, Andrew Ng worked at Baidu!
Ok they are bottlenecking data... As I've already mentioned this is an extremely inefficient way to share data. Sharing data using physically present word of mouth is a lot more expensive and slower than sharing it instantly via an open internet connection.
Is there any indication that scientists predominantly use whatsapp, so this would block innovation? When you say "this is an extremely inefficient way to share data", what do you mean? It's not like China doesn't have its own messengers, and it's not like whatsapp is the only way for people to communicate over the Internet..
You commonly hear scientists complain that they spend a lot of time trying VPNs and working around the latest crop of GFW restrictions, yes. Whatsapp isn't the only limited thing in China.
Re:China Blocks WhatsApp
by processing on Monday September 25, 2017 @08:09PM
(#15335186)
Peak Hacker News
"Sharing data using physically present word of mouth is a lot more expensive and slower than sharing it instantly via an open internet connection."
If stating obvious facts is "peak Hacker News" then that's good, isn't it?
as long as circumlocution is valued.
Re:China Blocks WhatsApp
by Footkerchief on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @02:45PM
(#15341462)
I've read that circumlocation is cheaper and faster.
Re:China Blocks WhatsApp
by peoplewindow on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @05:13AM
(#15337245)
Last I heard academics had started getting filtered internet connections too, and were finding it hard to collaborate with non-Chinese academics as a consequence.
Re:China Blocks WhatsApp
by dreamfactored on Monday September 25, 2017 @07:42PM
(#15335077)
Any effective government will rightly 'isolate' itself from this kind of pollution -
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogatio...
2. No single country has a monopoly on innovation. Consequently the sharing of ideas from different locations and cultures is really important for moving forward. You miss out on this benefit when you consciously work to block it. Historically, the last time China was this arrogant about isolation, it didn't turn out too well.
Last Update: I've wasted enough time on this and probably should have put this in my original post.
If you think of sharing data as a resource, China just made it artificially scarce, made it extremely slow, and made it really costly which makes total business sense in the Information Age /s Hopefully our governments won't follow