December 6, 2024
Recombinant Modularity and Technological Change
In the past couple of weeks I’ve read two things I want to recommend that are actually deeply related. The first is Brian Potter’s excellent history of technology analysis of the evolution of the lithium ion battery. Brian’s Construction Physics newsletter is a consistently excellent treasure trove of analysis, from his series on the history of the electricity…
November 20, 2024
President Trump Should Abandon Biden’s Misguided War on Big Business
As President Trump takes office for the second time, a pressing question will be how to handle the Biden administration’s legacy of targeting large businesses. In 2021, President Biden issued an executive order on competition, launching an all-of-government effort to reverse, or at least stay, a century-long trend: the rising share of national output produced by large firms….
October 31, 2024
Maine Shows the Way: Low Earth Orbit Satellites Can Rescue the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program
As the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz and Donald Trump-JD Vance campaigns pour resources into Maine to compete for electoral votes, both the Vice President and former President Trump could benefit from something more than campaign dollars: a lesson from Maine on how to fix the stalled Biden-Harris broadband rollout. The $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and…
October 31, 2024
Regulating Artificial Intelligence in a World of Uncertainty
Key Points Read the pdf. Executive Summary New and increasingly capable artificial intelligence applications are a fact of life. They offer great promise of advances in human welfare but also have engendered fears of misalignment with human values and objectives, leading at best to harm to individuals and at worst to catastrophic societal outcomes and…
October 25, 2024
TikTok’s No Good, Very Bad Day in Court
Last month, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument in TikTok Inc. v. Garland, which tests the constitutionality of a federal law that would ban the popular social media platform from app stores early next year unless its Chinese-affiliated parent company divests ownership. While seasoned lawyers caution against predicting decisions based on oral…
October 24, 2024
Progress and Its Enemies
26 years ago, Virginia Postrel published The Future and Its Enemies, which I still consider one of the most insightful books of our time. The book’s subtitle, The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, has become even more relevant since 1998. Virginia gave a presentation on the ideas in her book at the Progress Conference in Berkeley last…
October 17, 2024
Why the Veto of California Senate Bill 1047 Could Lead to Safer AI Policies
Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, reignited the debate about how best to regulate the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. Newsom’s veto illustrates a cautious approach to regulating a new technology and could pave the way for more pragmatic AI safety policies. The robust debate SB 1047 sparked, imperfect as it was, is…