Wharton Tech Blog

All the net’s atwitter with news of the as-yet unconfirmed Google acquisition of online video leader Youtube. Even if the whole thing falls apart (or never existed) it’s interesting that most are finding it plausible, at the least.

Does our collective willingness to believe that this deal makes sense hint at a sea-change in perception of Google? Several years ago, when the company’s future was so bright Messrs. Page and Brin wore shades, few of us would have imagined that the company’s efforts to dominate markets it entered would fail to take in the way that Google Video has.

Perhaps the deal signals a new realisation that even a company that hires, feeds, and handsomely remunerates some of the most brilliant software developers can’t possibly dominate every market it enters, even if it tells those developers to spend 20% of their workday goofing off. The market (comprised of thousands of firms and tens of thousands of innovators) will always outsmart a single company over the long run.

We tend to assume that navigation systems, autopilot systems, and other technical advances make travel safer. The net effect is that they probably do.

But there are instances in which they might make us less safe. Philip Greenspun faults aviation technology for the recent mid-air collision of two jets at 37,000 feet, noting that autopilot programs put planes on inevitable collision courses.

He writes, “If you replaced the precise autopilots with imprecise humans, planes would be less likely to encounter one another.”

In the aftermath of this collision, are pilots wresting back control of their planes?

Sorry about the hiatus. No excuses for it. We’ve got some new students who want to write for the blog and who soon will begin posting. If you happen to be a student or alum of the University of Pennsylvania interested in blogging about the intersection of business and technology, drop me a line.