Innovation at Work: Google's Driverless Bombshell

Sadly, what now probably is to be expected throughout Germany is a further surge of anti-Google resentment, maybe accompanied by a public outcry, adding to complaints about Google Street View fears that Google one day might dominate even German men's most favourite toy, the automobile.

In reality, this coup of Google merely illustrates the continuing decline of Germany as a place where innovation is allowed to happen.

It might be worth to remember that the famous German 'Wirtschaftswunder' in the post-war years ca. 1948-1970 causing national pride and making money for social benefits was essentially based on certain established technologies brought to some degree of perfection during the phase of build-up of arms and, thereafter, war, all under Nazi rule 1933-1945, i.e. mechanical precision engineering and and electrical power engineering. The heydays of German electronics were when everything was done by utilising thermionic valves which are devices produced by exercising mechanical precision engineering skills within the context of electronic apparatus. Hence, perhaps it might not be fetched from too far that the post-war German Wirtschaftswunder was a late peace dividend from fostering skills in mechanical precision engineering and and electrical power engineering amongst broader circles of the workforce.

However, there were two groundbreaking fields of science which had not been in the favour of war-mongering Nazis during the 1933-45 period:

• Quantum mechanics (suspected of being 'jewish'), and
• Programmable digital apparatus (despite of early works of Mr Zuse).

Quantum mechanics is essential for understanding the physics of semiconductor technologies, transistors, and integrated circuits (ICs). To me it does not come as a surprise that the transistor was invented in the United States, and the IC was recognised as powerful tool in the United States as well. And the enormous power of programmable apparatus was first recognised at Bletchley Park, not in Berlin. Despite of being approached by Mr Zuse, the Nazi rulers appeared neither to be impressed nor interested anyway in his sort of new programmable machines.

Therefore, I believe that it might well be that much of the glory of the German Wirtschaftswunder was in fact borrowed from basic technologies brought to some degree of perfection during the war years. The new world of semi-conductor based digital machines was imported from the United States but never reached the core elites in Germany. Of course, substantially starting in the 1960s, German Universities have graduated engineers and scientists knowledgeable of semiconductors and digital technologies in huge numbers. But up to today those experts stay in a niche of society: Top brass in finance industries, politics, and intellectuals never seriously have embraced the new world of semiconductor-based digital machines. It is not desirable to look geeky or nerdish when showing up in such quarters of the society. In those circles it is still cool not to know too much on computers and Internet: Using an iPhone or other gadgets is dealt with as part of going with the trend in fashion and life-stlyle but rarely anyone out of our elites would be able e.g. to explain impromptu how the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) works or something like that.

Due to the year of my birth I have the privilege to witness the rise of digital technologies within my lifetime and with by my own eyes. Since the 1980s I have seen how Germans trend to prefer identifying all potential risks of digital technologies, avoiding discussion of chances. I must say that I am now quite sick of reading in various media my contemporaries e.g. blaming immigrants of different faith for Germany's decline instead of pointing the finger at themselves for their own intellectual dullness/slothfulness and, in particular, for not seizing the chances of the age of the Internet.

Now, the cosy years of the Wirtschaftswunder are long gone, and Germany is no longer pacemaker in any important field of science and technology. People feel that, discontent looms, and scapegoats are in heavy demand.

Ah, yes, not to forget that time does not stop. The Economist reports that emerging markets are teeming with young entrepreneurs in masses. For example, Globals, Inc., is one of those fast-growing Indian IT companies that Westerners simultaneously admire and fear. Founded in 2000, it already has offices in 11 countries and customers around the world. The chairman and chief executive, Suhas Gopinath, is just 24 years old. Most of his employees are also in their mid-twenties. The Economist says Mr Gopinath's career is nothing less than an illustration of a striking business revolution. They further correctly argue that young people are innately more inclined to overthrow the existing order than are their elders. This predisposition is being reinforced by two big changes in the emerging world: The first is the information technology revolution, and the second is a pro-entrepreneurial revolution.

It is not clear as to how the ageing German society with its frozen mindset habits can be made fit for this sort of competition.

(Photo (C) by CGoulao via Flickr licensed under terms of a CC license)