Flutterby™! : Change the laws of physics

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Change the laws of physics

2014-11-05 15:18:39.447893+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

How putting $10M into UBeam illustrates everything that is wrong with tech investing today.

I recently had an exchange with someone whose opinion was instrumental in certain technologies you use every day, in which he was talking about mesh networking, I suggested that the famous Gupta and Kumar paper kind of put a damper on that, and his response was to scoff at the information theorists and suggest that some undergrad will come along and prove them all wrong and have I seen what's happening with mesh messaging?

I'm also reminded of the numerous "digital scent" accessory startups we've seen over the years, people claiming that they'll be able to ship peripherals in months when you can talk to any physiologist about scent and discover that, no, we're nowhere near knowing the "primary colors" of scent.

So, yeah, tech investors are gullible, playing for that next big breakthrough, not doing due diligence. Possibly because social media at this point is where the big dollars are, but is clearly headed towards a commodity advertising market, with huge shifts possible (MySpace?) so is extremely risky, and if you're gonna throw that money somewhere, throwing it at other impossible ventures is just fine.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Consumerism and advertising Journalism and Media Machinery Currency Economics ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: Change the laws of physics made: 2014-11-06 00:11:15.579198+00 by: meuon [edit history]

I'm just wondering what pitch for arcane technology can land me and my geek friends with a comfy retirement nest egg. My problem is not laughing at myself during the pitch.

#Comment Re: Change the laws of physics made: 2014-11-06 00:28:30.740819+00 by: Dan Lyke

And an exit strategy for it...

#Comment Re: Change the laws of physics made: 2014-11-06 02:55:36.50732+00 by: dexev

It's been six years since the last bubble broke, looks like we're about due...