by Lee Stranahan
One thing that's increasingly clear to me is that the economy as we've known it is not going to make a comeback. I think we're in for a big period of realignment and things will get better but they won't be the same. This is because the economic collapse is coming at the same time as a number of seismic technological changes plus Obama's new political axis that measures government along an effective / ineffective scale instead of left / right or big / small.
No, I'm not predicting jetpacks and flying cars and the music of Jet Screamer blaring from your robot's MP5 player. Although, that would be badass.
Here's a practical, contemporary example - combine cheap production tools, instant, decentralized distribution via the internet, less expendable cash in people's pockets and some rational changes in copyright law...and what do you get? An future entertainment industry that doesn't look like the one we had five years ago or even today. And this is happening everywhere, in every industry and most social structures like education - mass change on a really unprecedented scale that gives individuals a lot more power but that doesn't fit the existing structure of big bloated companies, who are roaring to their deaths like so many dinosaurs.
And thank god we've got an administration in power who I think is up to the task of steering through it all.