Silicon Valley’s innovation agenda looks for a new champion after Obama

[Commentary] The battle to be anointed Silicon Valley’s Presidential candidate for 2016 is not going to be fought over specific technologies. Instead, it’s going to be fought over the bigger ideas of how candidates think America should grow -- not just maintain -- its innovation potential.

What Silicon Valley wants is maximum freedom to empower risk-takers and entrepreneurs to launch more businesses. Another big idea that must be addressed by any aspiring candidate is how much involvement the government should have in regulating the way society deals with complex technological issues. Now that Silicon Valley plays just as important a role as Hollywood or Wall Street in defining the contours of the national political debate, it’s almost inevitable that some of the ideas from the techno-libertarian agenda will start to show up in the platforms of candidates in 2016.
[Dominic Basulto is a futurist and blogger based in New York City]