After reading about the Google Federation Protocol, I could not sleep… was contemplating how this effects the future of software protocols, or, in best case, can serve as an example for the hardware industry or any other technology. Google Wave Federation Protocol, is revolutionizing the way we communicate, and yet, they are involving the whole community and building a new ‘wave’ in the global progress. They are not wrapping the innovation around them and money, they are collaborating with the development community to make a global leap! Way to go!
I’ll try to elaborate why is this a crucial issue for me, in the world of innovations.
I have often thought about how changes in technology are irreversible. The possible bad choices of default implementations, whether influenced by economics of scale, or by simple taking for granted are haunting us even today. Taking into consideration that technical changes are mostly influenced by its antecedents, even when random, they may have a weight of its own.
Here is a perfect example. We are stuck with the “QUERTY” typewriter keyboard, because of the irreversibly of acquired system-scaled economics, prior investments in education and equipment. Therefore, technological change does not have the reversible and ergodic qualities of most market phenomena. This aspect gives the appearance of autonomy to technological momentum, leading us to believe that invention is the mother of necessity, not the reverse.
Believe it or not, the QWERTY keyboard is actually designed to slow typing speed. Early typewriters had problems with the plates jamming in the mechanical arms if users typed too quickly. Christopher Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard layout to force typists to type slower so that typewriters wouldn’t jam. QWERTY became the model in typewriter production and the standard for business use.
We are surrounded by things—tools, technologies, ideas, institutions. They make us who we are. It is the era when the layers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are no longer viable, because no technological factors are in-calculated. As our creations evolve, these status-quo elements adapt to changing needs, but often they retain vestigial traits, throwbacks to earlier times. There’s just not enough momentum to switch!
So it seems we’re stuck with QWERTY. And not just that! We are sometimes stuck with ancient working processes in our companies. We are stuck with outdated educational programs. And most of the people are not even bothered with that?
Are we too lazy? Or, there is nothing in it, for us?
I have few dilemmas, though, for the other innovation segments:
Is it because we are mostly creatures of habits and stability in what we already know, instead of creatures that want progress?
Has the entropy already entered because we refuse to put energy in some areas and does it create weak links to evolution?
Do we just wait for somebody else to react, and is that somebody always the one who has financial interest in the changes?
