technology

Dear Labor, Don’t Fear the Robot

by Michelle Minton on September 6, 2011 · 3 comments

in Employment, Features, Labor, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Regulation

Post image for Dear Labor, Don’t Fear the Robot

In California, a war is quietly being fought: workers versus technology. And the war has materialized in the form of a bill that seeks to ban the sale of alcohol by automated checkout machines at grocery stores. You may have seen them, those machines that allow customers to scan and bag their own items, which can speed up the process and keep lines smaller. Those machines also allow grocery store owners to reduce their costs by employing fewer workers. Herein lays the problem: workers fear that they are slowly being replaced by machines and that increased reliance on automatic check out machines threatens their jobs.

The legislation, AB 183, would ban the sale of alcohol at self-checkout aisles. The bill’s proponents drag out the old “save the children” argument, claiming that minors can easily purchase alcohol without the human oversight a traditional checkout process offers. Of course, the robots aren’t completely automated and require a worker to authorize any purchase that contains an age-restricted item such as alcohol. Additionally, the numbers of “sales to a minor” violations submitted by the state’s alcohol control board seem to indicate that most of these sales do not occur at grocery stores, but rather at liquor stores and in restaurants.

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Human Achievement of the Day: Mobile Phone Credit Card Processing

by Michelle Minton on March 2, 2011 · 1 comment

in Features, Tech & Telecom, Zeitgeist

Post image for Human Achievement of the Day: Mobile Phone Credit Card Processing

It’s a hot summer day, you pass by a lemonade stand and you think “An ice-cold lemonade would really hit the spot,” but you have no cash and there are no ATMs in sight! That is no longer a problem thanks to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s Square, a small credit processing device anyone can use with their mobile devices to accept debit and credit payments on the spot.

Small businesses from corner flower merchants, garage and estate sale holders, or street food vendors and farmers markets can now offer their customers a more convenient way to pay for their goods, allowing them to compete with larger businesses. Square is literally a small square device that can be attached via cable to mobile devices, and which processes credit payments for a small per-transaction fee. Square is currently compatible with Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, as well as Google Android products such as the Droid or Nexus One, and will likely increase compatibility with other devices as the technology catches on. There are no monthly fees and no contracts for those who sign up — just a per transaction cost of 2.5 percent plus $0.15, which Square uses to cover interchange fees to credit card companies. Dorsey claims that, with Square, merchants can see an immediate increase in sales of around 20 percent.

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iPhone 4 is All About Verizon, Not Apple

by Kathryn Ciano on February 8, 2011 · 1 comment

in Tech & Telecom

Design loyalists know it all begins and ends with Apple, the little tech company whose mission statement is “to change the world.” When it comes to phone users, design goes out the window: iPhone 4 converts are excited about Verizon, not Apple.

Verizon and Apple both launched Web sales of the iPhone 4 last week for existing Verizon customers, and are preparing for a Thursday store launch open to the general public. Sales during last week’s launch exceeded any previous Verizon launch, beating sales at the Droid launch by five times, according to JPMorgan Chase analyst Phil Cusick.

I wrote on launch day:

In this case it looks like folks switching phones are doing it for the service provider, not for the manufacturer. Despite its reputation for inflexible contract terms, Verizon enjoys the view from the top of the dependable-service-provider heap

Verizon seems preoccupied with their launch today. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted today that “WH unclassified email went down shortly before 8 AM. Verizon is working to solve the problem.

It’s not just web service and White House service that’s become spotty; Verizon is so concerned about the crush of demand anticipated for iPhone 4 that the company asked employees to hold off buying the phone for themselves or their families, citing “tight supplies” and the need to “put customers first.”

The launch crashed both the Verizon website and Verizon’s service to the White House. Let’s hope this doesn’t herald a new era of dropped calls and spotty connections for Verizon customers.

Verizon sold out of the iPhone within two hours on its Web launch day. Better line up now to get your Verizon-powered iPhone Thursday morning!

A Surge Toward a New “Scientific-Technological Elite”?

by Fran Smith on October 19, 2010

in Energy, Environment, Global Warming

AEI’s Steve Hayward, in his article “Power Surge,” presents what he says is an innovative solution to foreign oil dependence and global warming: pump huge sums of government money into energy innovation through corporate-university-government partnerships:

While the details may vary, the consensus is clear: America should create a national network of decentralized energy innovation institutes — whether we call them Energy Discovery Innovation Institutes or the National Institutes of Energy or something else — that can bring corporate, university, and government scientists together to tackle big energy problems, while strengthening diverse, regional clean technology clusters. Modeled after sustained federal investments made in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s that assisted the rise of Silicon Valley, this effort would cost about $5 billion annually.

As a political historian, Hayward undoubtedly is familiar with Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address on January 17, 1961, where he warned against the power of the military-industrial complex: “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” he said.

Perhaps Hayward has forgotten that Eisenhower — in that same speech — also warned against the dangers of government research funding in universities and the creation of a new scientific-technological elite:

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

Hayward’s short paper is a synopsis of a report, “Post-Partisan Power,” co-authored by Hayward, Mark Muro of Brookings, and Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute.

Michael Specter and The danger of market denial

by Fred Smith on April 26, 2010

in Agriculture, Environment, Odds & Ends, Zeitgeist

Michael Specter, a journalist who’s also an excellent speaker, appeared at the last TED conference.  Specter is technologically optimistic but has accepted many of the eco-catastrophe myths.  He favors GMOs, worries about micro-nutrients, says nothing about perfumes or clothes or other status items, makes fun of the organic food movement (sort of) and so on.  Like many modern intellectuals Specter likes technology (or, at least, the right type of technology – the Bright rather than Dark Side of the Force).  And here is the problem – he fails to discuss the institutional framework most appropriate to guide technology in human- friendly directions.   Should innovation be “guided” by markets or by politics?  His condemnation of nutritional supplements would suggest that he’d favor laws banning or taxing the “wrong” consumer choices. 

Specter does not seem to recognize that institutions-not science per se- is the key factor.  He says (in this clip, at least) nothing about the critical link between R and D (he doesn’t really discuss D in any meaningful sense).  No allusion to markets and profits as ways of stimulating innovation.  And, of course, ignores the reality that absent property rights, markets are a grand illusion.

“I Can’t See the Objection”

by Fred Smith on November 19, 2009

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Personal Liberty, Precaution & Risk, Tech & Telecom

The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are seeking a preliminary injunction in federal court to stop ASU’s plan to use Kindles in place of traditional textbooks. Their objection was based on the point that it is far from easy for a blind individual to access the Navigation Features of this device.  And they’re right – the “Home Menu” lists the books stored but that order changes as soon as they’re accessed and that list is not available on audio.  The titles, for example, aren’t read aloud.

But, the early versions of any technology are often clumsy.  Books, after all, have long been less accessible to the visually handicapped.  This is not unusual; many visual projects – movies, TVs, plays, operas – all remain inaccessible.  But, the goal of civilization is not the utopian goal of making everything available for everyone but rather to make the world more accessible to more people and Kindle certainly advances that goal.  With some skill or with the assistance of a sighted individual, Kindle allows the blind the opportunity to “read” vastly more books than ever before.  While, readers have always been available and audio books are increasingly common, these are generally more expensive.  Moreover future Kindle products will almost certainly embody audio instructions to guide the blind through the various menu functions.

Utopian passions are dangerous.  The search for the perfect can too easily make it impossible to attain the good.

Regulation of the Day 53: Y2K

by Ryan Young on September 21, 2009

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Legal, Regulation, Regulation of the Day, Tech & Telecom

The case for regulatory sunset provisions is inadvertently made by an entire chapter in the Code of Federal Regulations devoted to lawsuit rules for the Y2K computer bug from nearly a decade ago.

Nanotech: Innovation or Stagnation?

by Ryan Young on August 26, 2009 · 1 comment

in Economy, Nano & Biotech, Regulation, Tech & Telecom

Over at the Washington Examiner‘s Opinion Zone, I give nanotechnology a Schumpeterian treatment. In the long run, a competitive, cut-throat market process driven by innovation is better for consumers than if government were to fund and direct research:

A nanotech firm that lives mostly off of government grants lives a sheltered, more docile existence. It doesn’t need to come up with new products that save peoples’ lives, or make them better. They just have to be good at getting grants.

LibertyWeek 54: Read My Lips

by Richard Morrison on August 3, 2009

in CEI Projects, Podcast

Your host Richard Morrison welcomes back returning guest co-hosts Michelle Minton and Jeremy Lott for Episode 54 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with ominous hints of new taxes, California state employees making strike threats and the possible antitrust implications of the Microhoo partnership. We continue with a double-dipping pay scandal, the suppression of dissent in Venezuela and some fully transparent Olympic News.

Justice Dept. Should Leave the Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Alone

by Gary Howard on July 29, 2009

in Economy, Legal

Statements of Ryan Young and Wayne Crews

Washington, D.C., July 29, 2009 – Today, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a ten-year partnership of their search businesses in order to better compete against Google. The Department of Justice, citing antitrust concerns, is likely to investigate the deal before allowing it to go through. Competitive Enterprise Institute technology policy experts Wayne Crews and Ryan Young argue that regulators can best serve consumer interests by leaving well enough alone.

Ryan Young, Fellow in Regulatory Studies:

“What is there to investigate? Microsoft and Yahoo are trying to outcompete Google. To succeed, they will need to put together the best search engine they can. The firms believe their announced partnership will help them achieve that goal. They should be allowed to try – their own money is at stake if they fail. Either way, Internet users stand to benefit. Bing and Yahoo Search should improve from the proposed partnership, which will also force Google to make its own search engine better, lest it be left behind. This is how a competitive, contestable market works. The goal of antitrust policy is to benefit consumer welfare, but there is nothing regulators can do to make an already fiercely competitive market even more so.”

Wayne Crews, Vice President for Policy and Director of Technology Studies:

“This administration is already suspicious of allegedly ‘dominant’ firms in the high tech sector – but consumers are better off when regulators let markets evolve naturally, rather than guiding them from above. The Microsoft-Yahoo alliance has the potential to offer great value to consumers. The dangers of arbitrarily blocking such voluntary business arrangements, or needlessly delaying them, are severe. Regulatory intervention in the high-tech sector thwarts the natural evolution of the market. Worse, it distorts the response of competitors. Antitrust investigations steer the market in unnatural directions, creating instabilities in entire industry sectors.

“Consumers have more to fear from government bureaucracies that have the power to stop progress cold than they do from free enterprise looking to create the next big thing. Should the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership not pan out, rivals, partners, consumers, investors, advertisers, and even global competitors are perfectly capable of dealing with any challenges to competition. Consumers stand to lose if Washington gets involved.”

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