"Regulators are accused daily of both incompetence and malice, painted as one homogenous block of stalwarts who wake up and choose to stifle innovation and entrench incumbents. But in my job at Astranis, a company building dedicated satellite networks, I've talked to dozens of regulators around the world - from the United States to the United Nations, across the Americas, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and beyond - and I can say from experience that regulators a monolith."
"The regulators I work with differ widely in their level of technical knowledge, approach to incumbents, degree of belief in isolationism, and openness to change. Some would prefer that nothing change, ever, but such stalwarts are increasingly being replaced by tech-forward successors who want to promote economic growth and enable innovative new companies to gain market share. In this article, we'll explore the main strategies regulators use and discuss"
"This is the strategy famously adopted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In the 25 years before 1979's partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, it granted roughly 180 construction permits for new reactors. In the 25 years after the accident, it granted zero. New technology is scary, and as it advances, it can prove increasingly difficult to regulate. For regulators, abstinence is simpler than moderation."
Regulators differ widely in technical knowledge, attitudes toward incumbents, and openness to change across countries and institutions. Some regulators halt industry growth entirely, exemplified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's stoppage of new reactor permits after Three Mile Island. Other regulators institute rules that protect incumbents and preserve existing market advantages, slowing disruption. A subset of regulators embraces technology and seeks to enable innovation and economic growth, but many of those regulators overfit regulation to current technologies, which can produce misaligned rules and unintended harms to nascent industries.
Read at Big Think
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