"So, what I think we need is a meritocracy led by meritorious ideas, not by the people who had them."
This would require us to give up ownership of ideas, which is pretty important to our culture. I'm not disagreeing, but it will require some significant change. One place to push that along is Kirby Ferguson's ongoing series.
http://everythingisaremix.info
I agree completely, but, and I'm getting a bit philosophical now, I think ownership is an outmoded concept based on animal territorialism, and is something that our species needs to take a long hard look at if we are to move past this stage of petty squabbles and killing each other in massive numbers. No one said it would be easy...
And ideas... Well, I understand IP, but can anyone ever really own an idea? Ideas like to get around a bit you know! Not sure it does us any good to be overly possessive!
The 'everything is a remix' is Interesting stuff, I may let the old sub-c cogitate on that for a while, cheers. :-)