Technology is Inherently Disruptive

I remain astonished at the ignorance of those in government.

Last week the US State Department ordered the Texas law student whose plastic gun plan for 3D printers has so outraged the establishment, to remove his CAD/CAM design program from the Internet.

He complied, knowing that the design has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, and mirrored hundreds of times on computers, worldwide.

One wonders if the State Department is filled with Luddites, or more likely is just trying to cater to the anti-gun rabble with a feel-good order that it fully knows, is meaningless.

The Genie is out of the bottle, as 3D printers are now destined to print not just guns, but the Chinese just announced the printing of electronic circuit boards on plain paper, opening the world to massive home-designed electronics.

So, where will this technology lead us? No one knows, or can guess. What we know is that plastic guns will be produced massively, with or without State Department “permission.”

The Gutenberg Press has its successor, for good and ill. (Just like everything else.)

New technology is inherently disruptive – have you heard of Alereo – a new TV service backed by multibillionaire Barry Diller?

The cable networks are in a frenzy over Alereo, and have sued the service at least twice – and cable has lost each lawsuit.

Basically, Alereo simply captures the over-the-air broadcasts of TV networks with large antennas and rebroadcasts that over-the-air service to your home – without paying the cable networks. Alereo argues, successfully, that they simply amplify an already free service for a tiny fraction of what you are paying for your current cable.

FOX, CBS and all the rest have not been able to stop Alereo, which is only in New York but expects to expand to 25 areas this Spring and Summer.

Technology marches on, regardless of attempts to silence it.