So for example, many people share with me this wish, that some day a more advanced version of Siri, the digital assistant on Apple's iPhone, will be more like a best friend, someone who will listen when others won't.

Indeed, government investment played a central role in developing nearly all of the technologies that make the iPhone a smart phone the Internet, GPS, touchscreens, and the advances in voice recognition underlying Siri. Similarly, in many countries, it is the public sector that is leading the way in making green technology possible.

These stories awaken our fears of being overtaken by others on the economic ladder. And now that our phones talk to us (Apple launched Siri, the artificial voice that answers your spoken questions, on its iPhones in 2010), they fuel dread that they can replace us, just as earlier waves of automation rendered much human capital obsolete.