[quote=Arraya]you don’t need governments, economics or money to innovate. Just human creativity.[/quote]
Yes, but what is the mother of creativity ?
Necessity, of course.
Whether you look at the necessity in terms of economics or socio-economics or a lack of energy density, or just plain survival, the need simply isn’t pressing enough yet (i.e. the price of oil not high enough, the supply not limited enough, the demand not high enough relative to supply, people aren’t cold enough, etc.) to force the solutions.
“Technology looking for a problem” is a waste. Solutions emerge because there is a need, not the other way around. Yes, you have to characterize the problem scientifically, but people don’t feel the need scientifically. They feel it economically. Economics drives them to define and solve the problem with science.
While economics is a dismal science, I find it useful for qualitative descriptions, not quantitative. One conclusion I can draw from studying econ is this – when there is a problem such that people can profit from solving it, many people will try like hell to solve it. If nobody can profit from solving it, then much fewer people will try to solve it, or worse – the government tries to solve it and spends lots of money on non-issues.
