Permissionless innovation According to technologists in Silicon Valley and other technology hubs around the country, innovation is usually the cure for just about any societal problem. If there were a clever catchphrase to describe this mind-set, it would be “Technology to the rescue!” The only problem is, government policymakers and bureaucratic regulators don’t always share that approach. Their first instinct is usually to view any new technology – drones, driverless cars, de-extinction – as something potentially posing a real risk to society. Technology, they say, needs to be regulated and controlled in order to prevent things from spiraling out of control. So along came a new term – “permissionless innovation” – to describe the policy approach favored by the digital elite. The word means exactly what it sounds like it should mean: Innovators shouldn’t have to ask permission before they bring a new technology into the world. Instead, the burden of proof should be on regulators – they should be forced to show that there is a real and immediate threat to society posed by the technology. In the absence of such proof, the innovation should be allowed to flourish. Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, argues in Permissionless Innovation that a failure to embrace this view of innovation will result in “fewer services, lower quality goods, higher prices, diminished economic growth, and a decline in the overall standard of living.” - www.washingtonpost.com