I was asked "Why didn't you patent this yourself, if you developed it first?" My reply was "It only took me an hour to build; if I went down to the patent office after every hour of programming, I wouldn't get very much done."
Also if iPhone app developers have to answer their Lodsys letters every time they add a button to their app, we're not gonna get very many apps.
I get what he's trying to say about smart people making shit happen in the 60-ties. But those predicted ideas still require lots and lots of work, no matter how smart you are.
Also, I don't buy it that people in a field get dumber (although the noise gets louder). It can also mean that all obvious ideas have been explored already and there's nothing new to invent without seriously big budgets, new ideas that won't get discovered anyway since with big budgets you also want a return and so low-hanging fruits are still targeted.
He talks about Windows Vista, a piece of software I absolutely loathe, but I'm sure that even Vista shows signs of brilliance and new ideas in its implementation, even though the impression and experience of the whole is less than stellar.
Also, software is complex and these early adopters of computer-science also predicted that software will get exponentially harder to develop and that a silver bullet for managing complexity won't happen. A piece of software like Vista is many times more complex than anything these people did in the 60-ties, even though its usefulness or elegance may be less.
When thinking about patents this article clearly has a point about how broken and corrupt the whole system is. However, personally I don't think there's ever going to be an end to it - unless big companies throw their weight at abolishing patents; unfortunately big companies also have patents portfolios, which is a serious war arsenal that can be used in their favor for defense, profits and getting rid of the competition.
So it's depressing, but that's just how things are.
Also if iPhone app developers have to answer their Lodsys letters every time they add a button to their app, we're not gonna get very many apps.