Glen Reynolds is on the mark with his essay on technology.
An excerpt...
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Just try this thought experiment: Imagine that it's 1993. The Web is just appearing. And imagine that you - an unusually prescient type - were to explain to people what they could expect in the summer of 2003. Universal access to practically all information. From all over the place - even in bars. And all for free!
I can imagine the questions the skeptics would have asked: (snip) "Why, even if we start planning now, there's no way we'll have this in ten years!"
Actually, that final statement is true. If we had started planning in 1993, we probably wouldn't have gotten here by now. The Web, Wi-Fi, and Google didn't develop and spread because somebody at the Bureau of Central Knowledge Planning planned them. They developed, in large part, from the uncoordinated activities of individuals.
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Now, contrast the RESULTS from NASA's "central planning" for space exploration.
Riiight.
-p
Forecasting technology and central planning
The whole thread (25 posts)
- Forecasting technology and central planning
- So to follow the internet model...
- yes, it would happen sooner
- Any company that wants to, can send a mission to Mars today. NASA cannot stop them. (n/t)
- yes, it would happen sooner
- A few Notes
- Perhaps such antibureaucratic remarks constitute heresy?
- So to follow the internet model...