A playwright once waggishly titled a play, "Stop the World — I want to get off!" Problem is, there's nowhere else to go.
The "Green Revolution" of the last century promised a way to end hunger even as global populations continued to increase. Today, that promise seems less convincing, providing a cautionary tale about the ability of technology to obviate the need for more painful measures.
While network effects provide great benefits, they can also lead to great risks. The Internet is increasingly becoming the unique host for essential services, as government, finance, energy management, supply chains, telephony and much more abandon traditional channels and migrate to the Web. Now, the rapid adoption of the cloud computing model points towards a future of rapidly growing concentrations ...
Earlier this year, the European Commission bowed to industry pressure and abandoned an aggressive definition of "open standards." Now the action is turning to the EU's member states.
The symptoms of an investment bubble are as obvious as the disease. Heaven forbid we should ever wise up.