This blog entry combines various sources to come to the titled conclusion. It all starts in New York City some months ago at a talk I went to at the Yale Club by the Dean of the Engineering College at Dartmouth. He presented a very interesting vision of our world in 50 years. In general it was an aggressive vision (we will be melded with machines a la The Matrix), but the main point I remember is his belief that we are on an exponential curve of innovation. This innovation is driven by technologies such as computing and nanobiology. Which brings me to a recent Wired article that mentions that others too share a vision of accelerating change. Given my technical background, I tend to agree - our lives will become increasingly improved via technology, so much so that our grandchildren will probably consider us as unfortunate as we do those who had to use a outhouse.

Unfortunately, this rate of accelerating innovation isn't guaranteed to continue. There are many roadblocks, but the most significant are software patents. The software patent system is already troubling for various reasons, very ably explained by the father of GNU/Linux, Richard Stallman. He does not go far enough though. Software patents may become so onerous that software developers will cease to be productive, as they will be unable to clear the regulatory hurdles that patenting software creates. Progress (aka the rate of accelerating innovation) may stall. In the end, the powers that be will hopefully realize that software patents hinder more than help, but until then technological innovation is in peril.

(For all the programmers out there, I would be remiss to not attribute inspiration for the title of this article to the great Dijkstra.)