In a somewhat similar vein, it would be great to have a centralized database for medical records, at least within each country. And we know how to do this technically. But it “somehow doesn’t happen” (at least anywhere I know of).
A general pattern would be “things where somebody believes a problem is of a technical nature, works hard at it, and solves it, only to realize that the problem was of a social/political nature”. (Relatedly, the solution might not catch on because the institution you are trying to improve serves a somewhat different purpose from what you believed, Elephant in the Brain style. EG, education being not just for improving thinking and knowledge but also for domestication and signalling.)
In a somewhat similar vein, it would be great to have a centralized database for medical records, at least within each country. And we know how to do this technically. But it “somehow doesn’t happen” (at least anywhere I know of).
A general pattern would be “things where somebody believes a problem is of a technical nature, works hard at it, and solves it, only to realize that the problem was of a social/political nature”. (Relatedly, the solution might not catch on because the institution you are trying to improve serves a somewhat different purpose from what you believed, Elephant in the Brain style. EG, education being not just for improving thinking and knowledge but also for domestication and signalling.)