Enthymeme:Meme:Memetics

Where the public benefits from one technology as distributed or otherwise made accessible through corporations, that same corporation is capable of inhibiting technology to protect their own competitive edge. Lessig points out that in a polarized or binary society, a loss on one side results in a gain on the other. However, he points out that it is easier for individuals in power to protect their own interests. Lessig argues that the role of new technologies in society should be resolved in the best interest of common sense, not in the interests of corporate shareholders.

Corporations, under the law, are nothing more than fictional people; that is, fictional asset holders. They exist to protect the assets of their owners in the event of a failed venture. The innate problem with publicly held and traded corporations is that those with the most ownership of a company hold the most clout, and of course, those with the most money are able to buy the largest parts of corporations. This inequality only nurtures selfishness.

Although Capitalism is often cited as a catalyst for scientific and technological progress, the example on FM radio is an instance in which science was held back in the interest of corporation governance. A man was destroyed in the process. You could argue that Armstrong should have been grateful to RCA for employing him and providing him with funds, but then shouldn't every employee of RCA, including David Sarnoff, be grateful to Reginald Fessenden and Lee de Forest who created the first AM radio? These scientists, used an Alexanderson alternator, created by Ernst Alexanderson, coupled with a spark-gap transmitter, which was developed by various people, to create something entirely new. The first AM transmitter is a remix of earlier technologies. David Sarnoff benefited from one technology that was created and remixed by countless natural, scientific geniuses but, with his new found empowerment, resisted, delayed, and then out-right stole a newer, superior technology.

The ultimate question is, do corporations and agents of the government have a duty to protect public interest? Do they fail in that duty when they make decisions that are influenced by their own selfish interests?

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