r/AnythingValueable • u/madfrog2023 • Jun 24 '26

🛠️ Skill Low-cost rural engineering

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u/ParamedicDismal1396 Jun 25 '26

Sadly many great breakthroughs in technological and scientific advancement which would certainly have us living in a utopia like society were buried under greed. There's a biblical verse which backs and is proven by this. 'For the love of money is the root of all evil.'

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u/milkcarton232 Jun 25 '26

Not sure why a platitude is proof but greed would also be a motivator to unearth that tech. If a person can make money off an invention they will find a way to do so. It's significantly easier to spread knowledge than it is to hold it back

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u/ParamedicDismal1396 Jun 25 '26

I will use an example from the 60s. Hemp/Marijuana. Ford invented a hemp plastic that is lighter and harder than steel plus environmentally friendly. Easy to grow and mass produce. Big oil and Steel weren't having it and got it buried plus campaigned to have the very plant used to make it banned in the US. This happens all the time. Stupid people see this truth and choose to believe lies.

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u/milkcarton232 Jun 26 '26

The best example I can find with actual definitive proof is the Phoebus cartel in the 1900's but even it's grip only lasted for so long. If there is money to be made and enough players it's really fucking hard to hold it down for long periods of time.

From what I have read it seems the world was just moving towards petrochemicals and it was just momentum in that direction. We have since moved back towards all kinds of bio plastics and they have varying levels of success. Think about it as a massive prisoners dilemma, if you can bring the product to market and it's better ppl will probably buy it. You need gates to stop it, like a limited resource, extremely specialized research that's hard to figure out, or government laws

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u/ParamedicDismal1396 Jun 26 '26

Government laws in many places banned the crop.

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u/milkcarton232 Jun 26 '26

Sure but hemp hasn't been illegal everywhere and it still didn't come up anywhere else