Re: [Trisquel-users] Stallman Talk

[dguthrie]

I think that Stallman is partly wrong about "society placing too much value  
on innovation". I don't think society places much emphasis on it at all. I  
think it places too much emphasis on new, shiny features, but the features in  
question are really not innovative.
Let's take the example of the smartphone. The new features in question that  
are "hot" right now are fingerprint sensors, front-facing flashes for  
"selfies", "force touch" pressure sensors and 4K screens. These are all  
iterative and are not innovative.
Things like VR are to an extent innovative. I would agree too much emphasis  
is put on certain technologies like this. But I think that more people look  
at Apple and their fruity blood-phones.
Self-driving vehicles are only partly innovative. They are autonomous, but  
what is the point? Like a lot of stuff that comes out of silicon valley, it  
is not well-tested for people outside of sunny Palo Alto. They don't work  
very well in the rain, they don't "do" hills, and I doubt they would be able  
to stop if something unexpected happened, like a child running in front of  
the road. Similarly chewing-gum can block the sensors trivially. A  
self-driving vehicle is also great for delivering car bombs (a concern in  
America, and in Europe at this time).
So rather than ask, "do we need innovation", ask " innovation for whom". Of  
course we need innovation! If technology was stuck in the 80s, with 64*20  
terminals and 512k memory, that would be stupid. We need technology to get  
better, but we need it to work for everyone. So biometric security is not a  
good innovation (it is clever, albeit flawed technology), but internet  
accessibility is because it spreads knowledge and culture.