“For so many years, as we transitioned from physical modes of digital delivery to digital ones, people seemed to have a surprising attraction to ownership. Of course, it was a legal fiction. Music downloaded was licensed and, indeed, the same was always true for software. And consumers were reminded of this every time they accepted terms and conditions but somehow the fact that you never really had to ask permission to use software gave a sense of ownership. I suspect it is a form of repugnance to non-ownership that kept this model going. A decade ago, Microsoft experimented with subscriptions for Office in Australia and failed miserably despite the very high comparative cost of software ‘purchases.’ That suggests a non-economic constraint to me.”

“This might be the biggest tech humblebrag ever. A team of scientists at Los Alamos National Labs has quietly shrugged its shoulders and admitted to the fact that, yeah, it’s been using quantum internet for, like, the last two years. Whatever.”