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cprise

(8,445 posts)
5. Technology is often said to be neutral, but the disruption flows mainly in one direction
Thu Oct 25, 2012, 04:21 PM
Oct 2012

That is because the capitalist class will always prefer to invest in and lobby for technology that will shore up the capacity for proprietary rent seeking. (Bill Gates said he wanted Microsoft to operate the "toll bridge" to the Internet.) They will even push for a generation or more in a field like biotech in pursuit of an ideal like genetically modified agriculture that can take abusive greed to new heights.

The so-called Intellectual Property regime is another area where technology is persistently being bent so that abusive proprietors can, for instance, lock up most of our culture while they rent it out to us. A good question would be, "Is DRM a disruptive technology, or a way to negate the advantages a disruptive tech gives to the consumer and citizen?" The preferred hardware platforms for consuming content are shifting to technology that is extremely closed, and it is due to a long-term push on the part of the media landlords.

Disruptive ideas and technology are also not inherently Randian

The concept doesn't belong to Rand per se, but Rand used it as a cornerstone for her narrative.

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