Where do Nokia phones come from i.e. the hardware? Korea I would guess.
Where was the IP developed and the R&D done? Finland. I'd take a shrewd guess that even the Finns import Nokia phones.

A knowledge based economy generates just that. It does not necessarily have the means or the skills to generate the hardware that manifests itself from the knowledge.

I, like others salute Julian for his optimistic view of Australia and its future. Reality check. World fossil fuel (oil) production (including all liquids) has plateaued and is now in decline. Financially Europe, the UK (Ireland) and the US are broke. When Portugal goes down, its inevitable, the $650 Trillion of CDS that banks world-wide have committed to, will blow the worlds economy and any hope for a transition to a renewable energy future. There will be opportunities for growth and changes in the way we live but the elephant in the room (population growth and its resultant draw down on our finite planet) will see a systematic and slow die-off. Nature will adapt as it always has, whether we can transition through this is another matter. Technology will not be our saviour, think about substitution and efficiency, they both have limits and so does this planet. The ride is getting rough and will get rougher, hold on!

renew,
If you go to a coal mine site you might see a dump truck. They can be massive and also high tech, and nearly all are imported.

The Australian driver just sits in the cabin, and supplies the arms and legs to drive the truck and haul the coal out of the pit. The value adding has been done when building the dump truck.

Similarly, when a student uses an iPad, the student is just supplying the fingers. The value adding has been done elsewhere when building the iPad and installing software into it.

The more we import, the less likely we are ever going to value add, and the knowledge based society is just a pipedream.

Unfortunately, I have never yet found anyone in the education system who understands this.

OK, I'll bite.

>>When Portugal goes down, its inevitable, the $650 Trillion of CDS that banks world-wide have committed to, will blow the worlds economy<<

Just out of curiosity, Geoff of Perth, how would that occur?

Where would the money go? More importantly, where would it come from?

I use a simple test for these things. It's called "follow the money". That means describing both its source and its destination.

Rather than hiding behind a throwaway line you probably picked up from some conspiracy web site or other, show us all how those "CDS" thingies will cause economic collapse, if and when Portugal "goes down".

I'm genuinely interested in your reply, because it helps throw some light on the level of understanding that is out there about really important things like the world economy.

Forgive me if I anticipate "not much", from your response.

A question, vanna.

>>...the knowledge based society is just a pipedream. Unfortunately, I have never yet found anyone in the education system who understands this.<<

I agree with you, of course. If Australia wanted a knowledge-based society, we would have had to start a century or so ago, and the chances of creating one now are somewhere between zilch and zip.

But I know this is a hobby-horse of yours, so I'll ask anyway.

What would you propose that we teach our students?

And who would teach them?

OK Vanna,

That dumptruck might, I have no time to find out now , have in its drive train say a component or a series of components were designed and built in Australia. Or designed here. e.g. the airport taxiway tugs that pull aircraft off airbridges - guess where the coupling link system for the A380 was designed?

We are a very large exporter of car parts for example. The days are gone when things were invented local, built local and sold local.

This is just obscure commercial stuff that never surfaces and if it finds its way into universities - well and good but unlikely.