The Choice Between Facebook and Running Water Isn?t Obvious

Over the past several years two seemingly independent ideas have been gaining traction:

1. New technology allows developing nations to leapfrog over traditional growth patterns (M-PESA, long-range wi-fi).
2. The increasing move towards ?convenience models? may be pointing the US? tech sector away from innovation (Peter Thiel?s ?they promised us flying cars but instead we got 140 characters?).

In a recent working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, economist Robert J. Gordon writes that the US? current wave of innovation is less of a step forward and more of a lateral move, merely finding novel ways to use innovations made 20 years ago, sitting him squarely alongside Thiel. To illustrate, Gordon asks the following hypothetical question between two options, A and B:

With option A you[...]

[Published in NonProfitBlogs - Read the original article]

Source: http://humanitariannews.org/20130113/choice-between-facebook-running-water-isn-t-obvious

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