> Let's turn it again... aren't the following among the primary driving forces
> behind the need for ever-greater computer speed and capacity 1) the
> staggeringly bloated size of the dominant operating system, 2) the
> ridiculously fractured niches of proprietary software,
A socialist society should embrace Free Software, no doubt about it!. The GPL License used by GNU/LInux warrants that every improvement gets back to the community.
> 3) the hegemony of
> the freestanding (rather than cooperatively networked) home/laptop computer
I dont know what this means...
> and 4) our society's capital-driven incapacity to develop or satisfy our own
> video, musical, sexual, and friend-ly needs within our own immediate,
> uncommodified relationships?
eh?
> Just like any other commodity, ever-faster processor speeds and storage
> capacities produce their own set of new needs, eh? and the cycle continues,
> largely w/o our conscious or intentional, much less democratic bidding...
Today you can use a $1500 desktop computer to do 3D CAD/CAM on a scale that required a $100,000 workstation from Intergraph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergraph a couple decades ago.
In other words, the increasing CPU power, lower power requirements (remember the heat produced by Intel's first Pentium Pro, and the associated power bills?), and lower price (think $400 netbooks) clearly level the playing field and give more people access to information, whether its to access foxnews.com OR lbo-talk....
What I do think is that all this cheap technology we enjoy nowadays is the indirect result of LOTS of government (war-related) government spending.
The main question of my original post, however, was if a purely state-run or cooperative approach would give the same speed of innovation. I have my doubts*. And I don't say this to minimize socialist/cooperativist approaches... but to think of ways a socialist/cooperativist approach can mimic the rate of innovation of the current "market". Set teams with goals and provide funding? ie turn sci/tech research into a scientific competition of sorts?
FC * But of course, that wouldn't be neccesarily a bad thing... if we can solve more pressing issues for mankind as giving people shelter, health and education...