Comment 42479

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted June 27, 2010 at 00:58:02

As somebody who's put many years and thousands of hours into researching the relationship between society, economy and technology, this kind of simplistic rant is altogether insulting. Technology is not a simple subject. It doesn't "just happen" historically, in proper order, and according to some grand design.

The welfare state versus technological development? The amount of money spent on technology since 1932 is staggering. The problem is that most of it was developed either for the military or big industry (usually both, by both). Prior to that, a very large part of invention had been done by individuals - tinkerers, scientists and ameteurs. Look at the Wright Brothers, for instance. But over time we made the transition from a largely "open source" society to one based almost entirely on proprietary technologies only understood by a handfull of professionals. Though A Smith's example isn't a very good one, a lot of people study this kind of thing have come to a similar conclusion - the rate of invention and innovation has been dropping for quite some time. And that's exactly what you'd expect with a much smaller percentage of the population understanding the basic workings of its technologies. Thankfully the internet, and hackers, are now starting to turn this awful time.

If you want a better simplistic comparison, look at what's happening between Linux vs. Windows. All the money in the world just can't beat grassroots development.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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