Lack of competition creates stagnancy 
Two Fridays ago, technology Goliath Apple Inc. was awarded $1 billion and some change after a nine-person jury ruled Samsung guilty of violating a variety of Apple's patents. While the $1,049,343,540 worth of damages levied upon Samsung is ghastly to mere financial mortals such as ourselves, it is ultimately recoverable for a titan like Samsung. Doubts of whether Samsung can endure the penalties, which will assuredly be appealed immediately, should be quelled. However, there's another $1 million question (or rather, billion) we all ought to wonder: What does this mean for the future of technological innovation?
The jury found Samsung guilty of violating multiple Apple design and function patents. The guilty counts ranged from justifiable (e.g., the bounce-back animation you see when you flick through the last image in an album) to questionable (e.g., the pinch-to-zoom feature all touchscreen devices ought to have) to downright flippant (e.g., Samsung stealing Apple's allegedly "signature" rectangular shape and rounded edges and corners). How the jury penalized Samsung for copying features as obvious as rounded edges and a rectangular shape is beyond me, but the insanity doesn't end there. The jury managed to answer 700 questions regarding the allegations in just 21 hours. If my calculations are correct, the jury spent a mere 108 seconds per question. In any case, the jury carelessly supplied Apple with more ammunition in its war against competitors.
That's exactly what this situation is — a war. Apple will continue to build upon this victory and, with its newfound momentum, hunt down and eliminate any competition in its way. There is no mistake that Apple is becoming the "big brother" it once swore to defeat. In fact, "thermonuclear war" is the name of game, according to a late Steve Jobs when asked about Apple's competition with Google. The last time the U.S. was on the brink of thermonuclear war was during a competition so ferocious that it drove us to the moon. Apple, however, does not want to subscribe to the spirit of competition, and instead seeks to destroy it in its conquest to become the very monopolizing presence it challenged in the corporation's early days.
Without the pressure of competition, innovation plummets and prices ascend. Perhaps the greatest motivating force for America, as a society, is the spirit of competition — to simply be better than the rest. Without that stimulant, life will be stagnant. The fierce competition of the Space Race that dared us to be a great nation brought us CAT scans, satellite TV and Teflon. A life in which Apple becomes the tyrannical leader of technology will bring us a life with less choice, a life with rounded edges. A life without sharpness.