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Hmm, I understand, to varying degrees, pretty much everything that happens there, at least down to the logic gate level. Once it hits the physics or quantum level I'm lost. It might be because I have an EE background, but it's not impossible to be aware of a sizable chunk of the underlying technologies that you use everyday. What is truly mind-boggling is all the manufacturing processes and logistics that make such technologies a commodity. Maybe this is the point he wanted to make? > Finally, last but not least, that is why our patent system is broken: technology has done such an amazing job at hiding its complexity that the people regulating and running the patent system are barely even aware of the complexity of what they're regulating and running. Uhh... the people running the patent system all have technical backgrounds. Patent lawyers and examiners must have a technical degree (edit: at least in the US). That does not mean they are technical experts, and in practice it's far from being so, but the theory is sound. Sure, politicians step down from up high once in a while to shake things up as they're lobbied to, but they are not involved in the actual technical nuances. >... the patent discussions about modern computing systems end up being about screen sizes and icon ordering, No, those are only the patent discussions people in this particular bubble hear about. As an experiment, go to patentlyo.com, and browse the archives to see the wide and varied range of patent lawsuits that happen all the time: you don't need to know anything about patent law, the introductory paragraph usually gives a good, brief overview of the technologies involved. |