Governments and regulators love their control. In today's environment, we see a lot of regulations being implemented in an effort to hasten the pace of many technologies.
The problem I have with this is that it is not how technology works. Contrary to what these dipshits in government think, technology operates at its own pace. It is a living organism that ebbs and flows. At times there is a lot of progress, others not so much.
We see this in being exemplified with electric vehicles. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the idea of EVs. Over the years, I traded Tesla on a number of occasions and still own a fair share of stock in my long term holdings.
That said, what is happening with regulation is insane. Countries around the world are trying to dictate when ICE vehicles are going to stop being sold. They think by picking a date in the future, all will be well.
While there is a good chance that EV technology will be up to par by the dates they set, there are no guarantees. In fact, considering all the moving parts in this scenario, most specifically, batteries, we could see the hit or miss rate be off by a wide number of years.
I look at it this way.
What would have happened if, when Facebook acquired Oculus Rift, that governments mandated that all meetings and education take place in V/R? How would that have worked out presuming they set a date, let's say for 2020?
It is possible that a lot of money would have flowed in to accelerate the development process. This might have caused breakthrough which made the technology accessible to everyone. Of course, there is a chance that it would have completely failed. Let us not forget we are on our third go around with V/R about to breakthrough and become mainstream.
Thus far, there are still a lot of glitches that make it unfit for most users.
Odds are they governments would have ended up misjudging what is taking place and cause a lot of money wasted. I remember about 20 years ago how HIPAA which was suppose to revolutionize medical record keeping. Now, 25 years after the bill was signed into law, the medical record world is a total mess. In fact, many doctor's offices still use paper files.
Technology has a lot of interesting variables. There are development factors which are always a consideration. Nobody knows how long R&D will take or when things will progress forward. Then there is the acceptance of technology by society. Often, people are resistant to change. Forced adoption can naturally help in this area but is that for maximum benefit.
We also can toss in safety concerns. There are times we simply do not know the impacts of technology. What seems like a good idea at one point is realized to be totally asinine a few years later. The idea of using crops for bio-fuel comes to mind. On paper it made a lot of sense. In practice however, it was totally different.
Alas, this is what regulators and government hacks believe is how things progress forward. They sadly believe they are the ones who can magically produce a technological change by a certain date.
History shows us this is not true. Yet it persists.
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