Re: Technikersozialisation

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> Die von Heiko zitierte Studie sieht darüber hinaus langfristige
> Rekrutierungsprobleme.  Technik ist zunehmend unattraktiv weil spröde
> und fachiditiotisch und daher im heutigen schnellebigen Arbeitsmarkt
> auf Dauer riskant.  Um das wettzumachen bedarf es einer besonderen
> "Techniksozialisation" ..

Auch das Patentwesen scheint zumindest gelegentlich einigen Leuten den
Spaß an der Technik zu verderben.

Ein Ingenieur der Patenthai-Firma Qualcomm (eine Firma, die keine Produkte
entwickelt sondern zukünftige Technikfelder absucht und mit Patenten
zupflastert, so dass selbst Branchenriesen wie Siemens die Freude an
Patenten vergeht) schreibt in einem bemerkenswerten Artikel, warum Patente
ihm, einem Tüftler seit Kindesbeinen, letztlich den Spaß an der Technik
gründlich verdorben haben.

Hier ein paar Auszüge, man lese das Original.  Besonders bemerkenswert
finde ich, dass er das auf dem Qualcomm-Server veröffentlicht.  Ferner
bemerkenswert die historische Betrachtung.  Das Patentwesen wird offenbar
schon lange von kundigen Leuten auch in traditionellen technischen
Bereichen als Geißel der Menschheit empfunden.  Möglicherweise werden auch
hier die kundigen Leute lediglich durch teils naive teils eigennützige
Eigentums-Ideologen übertönt. Erst durch Software wird aber der Schmerz so
groß und so weit gestreut, dass ein Befreiungsschlag gegen die
Patentgeißel ernsthaft in Sicht rückt.  Verhalten wir uns vielleicht am
Ende unsolidarisch, wenn wir nun eine Trennung in physisches und logisches
fordern?

http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/patents/patents.html

     If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others
     of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power
     called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as
     long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it
     forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver
     cannot dispossess himself of it...He who receives an idea from me,
     receives instructions himself without lessening mine; as he who
     lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
     That ideas should be spread from one to another over the globe,
     for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of
     his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently
     designed by nature...Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a
     subject of property. --Thomas Jefferson

     It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for
     every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which
     would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or
     operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an
     indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges tends rather to
     obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of
     speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the
     advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of
     patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the
     industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real
     advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of
     business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and
     unknown liabilities lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits
     made in good faith. (Atlantic Works v. Brady, 1017 U.S. 192, 200
     (1882)).

It certainly appears from this Supreme Court opinion, written over a century
ago, that the US patent office was already out of control. Sad to say,
things have only gotten worse. Thanks largely to the League for Programming
Freedom (yes, I'm a member), software patents have gotten at least some of
the notoriety they deserve. But the more patents I read, the more I come to
the conclusion that things are just as bad in the more traditional hardware
areas.

...

Some people have said to me, "How can you attack patents? As a Qualcomm
stockholder, they've made you a lot of money". Yes, but this has come at an
unacceptable personal cost. Last summer I was subpoenaed to a grueling and
pointless deposition in a patent suit by Bellcore, my former employer,
against Fore Systems, a maker of ATM switches. When I was asked my view of
the patent system, I responded, "I find it totally loathesome, and it has
totally drained the joy out of engineering for me". And I was exaggerating
only slightly. Patent angst has significantly reduced my job satisfaction,
enough to make me seriously consider giving up the engineering profession.
And as someone who knew by age 5 that engineering was his life's calling,
quite frankly that's just not something that money can replace.

....