Uncanny Valley by WIRED
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2016–2021
17:49 · 172K views · Jun 21, 2016
Part 3 of WIRED's Future Cities series on Shenzhen. It examines how attitudes toward patents and intellectual property differ from the West, and how shanzhai (copycat) manufacturing created an ecosystem of rapid iteration and distribution.
HN commenters point to it as a snapshot of Shenzhen's hardware and IP culture, including counterfeit electronics and fast iteration.
4 comments from Hacker News
> No, there are iPhone assembled from parts, I won't call it pirated. And people who buy those phones because they cannot afford it. It is very different from what you are doing. And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. Some are legit parts. Many are pirated. There's even android phones sold under the apple brand with a reskinned android OS. You 100% don't know what you're talking about at all. You want proof? Watch it: this video The more you watch the more educated you'll be. >Look at the iPhone sales figure from Apple, and look at android sales numbers. And you are trying to suggest that "the rest of China" buys a counter fake iPhone? You are either dishonest or you know nothing about China. Yes. Dude. In China they have entire factories that build counterfeit stuff. >And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. This is where you're wrong. I never admitted or justified what I was doing as right or wrong. In fact I think it's wrong. I'm human and I'm not perfect. I'm very capable of doing things that are wrong. The difference between you and me is that I don't have to lie to myself about the reality of what I'm doing. I don't have to justify it to myself. It's wrong, but I do it regardless without lying to myself. There are
Speaking of new cities; A shoutout to a new video series from WIRED on Shenzhen. Episode 1 : [LINK] Episode 2 : [LINK] Episode 3 : this video I came upon these videos through Andrew "Bunnie" Huang's blog. [LINK] Enjoy.
>There is no incentive for being a pioneer in a culture where IP is not protected. China has a different IP culture with some striking similarities to open source culture. Knowledge and expertise is shared through trusted peer networks (guanxi) for mutual benefit. I share what I know with you, on the expectation that you'll share what you know with me. Being particularly smart or innovative has real but intangible value, because it elevates your status within that peer network. Likewise, if you have a reputation as a parasite then you'll quickly find yourself being marginalised. This culture powers a very rapid cycle of iterative improvement. You can't rest on your laurels, you can't milk one innovation for the duration of a patent, you can't use an IP portfolio to block new entrants to the market. You have to keep innovating to stay relevant, you have to build and maintain a reputation for quality and value with every product, otherwise someone will eat your lunch. If Western companies can't get past the stereotype of Chinese companies as lazy copycats, they have no long-term future. Shenzhen is full of smart, motivated people who are moving up the value chain at an alarming pace with innovative products and an innovative way of doing business. this video
I'm building www.facebook.com/kokonautweathersensors which uses a nodeMCU so it's open source. There's also a lot of stuff at seeedstudio.com or electrodragon.com that is open source too. Also, this episode describes where China/Shenzen is at right now this video