> By any reasonable measure, we're in a renaissance of creativity There is a really interesting historical pattern here where new communications technologies c

> By any reasonable measure, we're in a renaissance of creativity There is a really interesting historical pattern here where new communications technologies create an initial splurge of independent creators but after some time the technology is consolidated into a smaller number of platforms (by regulation or monopolisation or sometimes both) that provide the main route for content to its consumers. These platforms tend to stifle peer competitors and are only replaced by disruptive rivals. Creativity on the platform depends on how much it stifles the content, the classic example being the Hollywood film industry in the 1940s .. 1960s which was highly vertically integrated and thus became an excellent vehicle for enforcing the so-called Hays Code, which defined morally acceptable content and attitudes. This idea is explored really well in the 2010 book ‘The Master Switch’ by Tim Wu [1] who shows how this pattern is played out with Radio, Films, Television and latterly the Internet. It would be really interesting to see an update to this excellent book to reflect the consolidation of Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc since it was published. My own concern is that because the internet is perhaps more pervasive than the prior media, any lockdown could have more severe chilling effects. As an extreme, consider future cloud-based compute appliances that don’t allow side-loaded software and whose content creation tools delete or report inappropriate language. [Edit - just noticed a similar comment from Jedd below. Next time I should read a bit further before commenting!] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wu#The_Master_Switch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wu#The_Master_Switch [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code