A thought occurs. I hereby propose a general pattern to be observed in the dissemination of new technology.
From the universities which develop its ideas it goes to Fortune 500 companies, to the fatcats who restrict it to themselves while it's new and patent the crap out of it to keep prices artificially high.
From there, when the fatcats can no longer contain knock-offs, it gets sold to the thirteen-year-olds who use it for the same reason the fatcats kept it to themselves: status symbol.
Then most commercial companies will adopt it in an effort to keep up with the younger generation, and thus the older segments of the population will be forced to adopt it.
Only afterwards will it trickle back into academic departments where it will be regarded as a vulgar, external, commercial imposition by them young whipper-snappers (who have by now moved on to creating cheap knock-offs of the latest new gimmick which academics have already forgotten they've handed off to the fatcats.)
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