KRUGMAN: We Are On The Brink Of A Technology Revolution That Will Transform Our Economy

[bananas]

http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-on-technology-and-the-economy-2013-2

KRUGMAN: We Are On The Brink Of A Technology Revolution That Will Transform Our Economy

Kamelia Angelova | Feb. 11, 2013

This post is part of the Roadmap To The Future Series. Roadmap To The Future explores innovative industry trends and breakthroughs in science, entertainment, and technology. This series is sponsored by Verizon.

A life-changing technology revolution, which we thought it was decades away, is upon us, says economist Paul Krugman, author of "End This Depression Now!"

"So far the information technology revolution doesn't hold a candle to previous technology revolutions," Krugman said in an interview with Business Insider editor-in-chief Henry Blodget.

"The really big revolutions were the ones that took place largely towards the end of the 19th century that actually powered growth for a long time after that."

But now, with driverless cars becoming a reality, technology is closer to affecting our physical world -- transportation, productivity and efficiency, among others.

Watch Krugman making the case against technology pessimists below.

(embedded video)

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Yeah, the IT revolution is young.

When you ask the abstract question: How can efficiency/productivity be improved with co-ordination of actions in a smart systematic way?The answer is "a million ways" and its really all doable through IT.

[savebigbird]

2. It's just too bad

the whole driverless cars thing would remain far, far out of reach for most Americans due to cost. I mean, they still haven't figured out how to get an affordable electric car out to the public. What are they, like 40k now? It's ridiculous.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. You mistake commodities for intellectual property.

The reason affordable electric cars are expensive is because of three problems: 1) Commodities and manufacturing to make affordable batteries are still expensive, 2) Charging cars takes time, 3) There is not yet the infrastructure comparable to gas stations.

On the side of driverless cars, the high capital costs are in the research and development, but the actuators and cameras and sensors and computers that will physically accomplish the task are not so expensive as battery components, so unit costs for cars can be cheap. They will be available much sooner than you expect, because for one thing there is no chicken-and-egg infrastructure problem. All the same, there are infrastructure improvements that would be a huge help.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Anyone care to summarize the video and save us all a lot of time?

Driverless cars? That is just a tiny facet of expanding computer technology. There has to be more to Krugman's thesis than that, even though it will be powerful.

[ReRe]

5. I think he is mirroring...

...PO's public-private partnership message in the SOTU. Turning high schools into technical schools.

[Katashi_itto]

6. Alot of what Krugman is expounding we've been using towards developing

the marketing for the movie we are shooting. Tons of distribution venues now available to sidestep the mainstream movie studios and make a solid profit.