Owning the Future - Hardcover

Shulman, Seth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395841755 ISBN 13: 9780395841754

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1999

Synopsis

Documents the struggle for dominance over imperceptible new advantages--genes, software, databases, and technological information--that comprise the livelihood of the new economy and ultimately effect jobs, schools, literature, and prices and availability of products.

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Reviews

Technology journalist Schulman tackles what is arguably the most important?if not the most obvious?economic and cultural development of the century's end: the privatization of information and knowledge. He raises a sobering alarm about what this trend ultimately means for the future of democratic society. There is, he writes, "an uncontrolled stampede to auction off our technological and cultural heritage" through the expansion of patents, copyrights and trademarks. Asserting that the legal concept of ownership is being stretched to cover intangible concepts that have always been shared and have enriched public life, not just private owners, Shulman urges thoughtful government intervention: reduce the scope of legally recognized intellectual property; simplify the adjudication of claims; and adjust the civil penalties for inadvertent or borderline infringement. He also argues for using zoning, sanctuary and antitrust laws to protect the public. Dozens of cases in diverse fields enliven the book as Shulman never lets his argument overwhelm the characters. He introduces eccentrics and idealists, geniuses and clever fakers, individuals being harassed by huge corporations and huge corporations being harassed by individuals. As Shulman tells readers exciting stories of innovation and the battles that flow from it, we learn quite a bit about science, law and politics. There will be those who find Shulman's warnings alarmist, but there's no doubt that he has clearly outlined what he calls "the vexing problems that emerge when knowledge is treated exclusively as a commodity."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An effective polemic against those seeking any monopoly on knowledge in the information age. The free flow of know-how is for Shulman (The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Society of the US Military, 1992) a necessary prerequisite both for the survival of the democratic polis and for our continued economic progress. Today, however, he argues, such a free exchange is threatened by an emerging pattern of claims of private ownership of knowledge. Whereas in the past, patents were granted only for the practical application of theories and ideas, today it is these very ideas and theoriesactionable knowledge, which is only potentially usefulthat are increasingly privately owned. For instance, programmers own basic knowledge of software codes; doctors own innovative medical procedures; and drug-companies own wild plants and insects (and exercise exclusive control over the medicines produced from these). Even our genetic makeup is being sold, as researchers lay claim to genes they discover or decode within the human genome. Freely shared knowledge, concludes Shulman, is thus an endangered species. This is tragic and dangerous, he judges, in both social and political terms. Knowledge thrives and expands as it is shared and propagated. To divide basic ideas up into what Shulman terms fiefdoms of knowledge assets is to threaten the very expansion of knowledge itself. Further, democracy demands a well-informed public; all must be able to draw on a spring of accessible knowledge. Economically, too, we may be harmed as society grows divided between ``a wealthy cadre of technological titleholders'' and a struggling, less entitled majority. Moreover, such polarization may occur on a worldwide scale as the West comes to own and control knowledge desperately needed by the developing world. While alarmist and prone to overblown hyperbole (e.g., he warns that we are entering a new ``Dark Age''), Shulman points to real dangers as knowledge seems, more and more ominously, to equal power. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395841755
• ISBN 13: 9780395841754
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240