Right now, it looks like we are going through the equivalent of technological dark-ages. What's worse is that we do not even realize it.
Lately, almost all laws and business practices seem to be leaning towards stiffling innovation and make profit through stagnant business models, rather than innovate. Need examples? They are all around you. Media. Software. Hardware.
Look at one of the latest drafts of WIPO, which I will quote here -
Article 16, Alternative V: ...
2. In particular, effective legal remedies shall be provided against those who: ...
(iii) participate in the manufacture, importation, sale, or any other act that makes available a device or system capable of decrypting or helping to decrypt an encrypted program-carrying signal.
Nice, eh? See Prof. Felten's blog for more.
Why has innovation stopped? Sure, it happens a little, but when was the last time something ground-breaking happened? The golden age of science is drawing to an end. All that we do today is use existing technologies and make them better -- but there are no new technologies. When laws and economics tend to put down technologies and new ideas, they might actually be killing a lot of ideas that could potentially change the world. I particularly like Prof. Felten's argument in this regard.
Between tinkering and innovation, I vote innovation. Tinkering is nothing but imitation, making an existing technology better. But you do not have any new technologies. You just work on what's already been built.
We have stopped having technologies that change the world, radically. Rather, we have reached a phase of calm acceptance that big businesses and governments do what they please. And in the process, real science is being killed.
Who the HELL cares about the ethical problem of cloning or stem cell research? It saves lives, for crying out loud. It's a new science, and something that will open new frontiers. And it will help bring progress, in some sense or the other. Technology is always double edged -- it depends on the people using it. Banning a technology because of what people might do is stupid -- raise better children, do not stifle technology.
When was the last time we went into space? For all the millions being spent on dumb movies and celebrity worship, if only a *fraction* of that amount was spent on science, we would make serious progress. How often do you hear kids say that being a scientist was cool? Or being a physicist was cool? We have the wrong idols. The people who make it big, the people who earn the society's attention and the people who get all the cool things in life are not the genuine contributors, but those that stifle science. Those that make people sit in their couches and while away their times, rather than inspire them to go out there and make a difference.
My dear friends, welcome to the Dark Ages.