Prestige will make Russia's arms industry untouchable

Subject Russia's arms industry. Significance Russia's defence industry plays a dominant role in the economy, and its status has been enhanced by operations in Syria seen as a political as well as military triumph. Foreign policy and arms exports are closely interlinked. As energy revenues fall, arms sales are becoming a key income source for the state. The industry is particularly unsuited to play its assigned role of economic driving force due to over-consolidation, inefficiencies and politics. Impacts Russia will use arms sales to cement alliances, and vice versa. Continual delays and cost overruns are likely, especially for equipment based on new technologies. Monopolistic structures will slow innovation.

Revisiting the Effect of Population Size on Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Previous models of cultural evolution found that larger populations can better maintain complex technologies because they contain more highly skilled people whom others can imitate. These models, however, do not distinguish the effects of population size from population density or network size; a learner’s social network includes the entire population. Does population size remain important when populations are subdivided and networks are realistically small? I use a mathematical model to show that population size has little effect on equilibrium levels of mean skill under a wide range of conditions. The effects of network size and transmission error rate usually overshadow that of population size. Population size can, however, affect the rate at which a population approaches equilibrium, by increasing the rate at which innovations arise. This effect is small unless innovation is very rare. Population size should predict technological complexity in the real world, then, only if technological evolution is a slow, innovation-limited process. Population density and “connectedness” have similar affects to population size, though density can also affect equilibrium skill. I discuss the results of this analysis in light of the current empirical debate.

Speeding up innovation in agricultural IT

An OECD funded research was conducted where methods and processes for speeding up innovation in agriculture were assessed. A global web-based questionnaire was sent to experts in agricultural engineering, research, marketing, education and users of new technologies. Interviews of selected experts were done to deepen the analysis. The results show that considerable part of the relatively slow innovation comes from the fact that users do not trust in new technologies or that the usability of them is unacceptable. 􀀀The experts suggest that education of the engineers and designers should include more elements from User-Centered Design (UCD) and also User-Driven Innovation methods should be more used. As a conclusion a new ‘Dream Team’ of agricultural innovation was developed where user interaction and marketing professionals were given more roles.