The more Kelly explores the issue, the more convinced he is (and he makes a compelling case) that [scale down, microscopic] technological progress is pretty much inevitable. It can be slowed down by bad policy, but it can’t be stopped. And, what’s most compelling to me is that this sort of progress isn’t dependent on anything like patents. It’s happening no matter what. The advancement of technology happens for a variety of reasons, little of which has to do with “protecting” the ideas. In fact, within that “protection” there’s little benefit.
The indispensable Techdirt exploring a deep thought from Kevin Kelly, a personal favorite among Internet experts and prognosticators, noting the inevitability of exponential technological progress even in confronting constraints and “bad policy.”
