Andrew W. Torrance, the Paul E. Wilson Distinguished Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Graduate and International Law at the University of Kansas School of Law, will present his inaugural lecture, "Innovation Hypercycles - The Rise and Fall of Technology Hotspots" at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, September 9, 2024, at the Beren Petroleum Conference Center, Slawson Hall G192. The event is free and open to the public.

About the presentation:
"Unlike other kinds of animals, which repetitively innovate without sustained progress, humans have accomplished cumulative innovation.  Throughout human history technological innovation has played a key role in advancing welfare and progress by expanding the production possibilities frontier.  Once capital and labor inputs are exhausted, economic growth derives from technological innovation.  In the long run, technological innovation tends to occur at a moderate pace.  However, every once and a while, when conditions are right, a period of explosive technological advancement arises, creating an “innovation hypercycle”.  Hypercycles are cycles whose component parts are themselves cycles (that is, cycles of cycles).  First discovered in chemistry, then in biology, innovation hypercycles also give rise to “hot spots” of rapid technological growth.  These hypercycles are fueled by the replication of ideas, applications of those ideas, growth in human wealth and welfare, and increases in the talent pool, leading to yet more ideas, and repeating the cycle.  When driven by an innovation hypercycle, technological growth accelerates rapidly.  Several factors influence the success of innovation hypercycles.  Open-mindedness, contestability of ideas, widespread education, freedom of thought and speech, democracy, trade in goods, services, and ideas, and an outlook focused on the future promote innovation hypercycles, while closed-mindedness, orthodoxy, reliance on received wisdom, ignorance, censorship, autocracy, barriers to trade, and a backwards orientation interfere with hypercycles.  Intellectual property and regulation, while potentially beneficial, can also hinder innovation, if misapplied, creating barriers rather than opportunities.  Examples of grand innovation hypercycles are ancient Sumeria, classical Greece, and the Industrial Revolution, while examples of local innovation hypercycles are the School of Alexandria, the Cavendish Laboratory, and the Broad Institute.  Innovation hypercycles are rare and delicate phenomena that require careful nurturing and protection to sustain. By understanding and wisely managing the factors that influence innovation hypercycles, societies can generate and sustain technology hot spots that yield spectacular  rates of innovation and enormous societal benefits."

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