Can Silicon Valley Remake Itself?

At economic development conferences over the last 20 years, the conversation frequently turned to the same question: How can we create our own Silicon Valley? And many countries and cities claimed that they had. One thinks of Silicon Glen (Scotland), Silicon Saxony (Germans tend to be literal), Silicon Taiga (Russia), Silicon Wadi (Israel), and Silicon Mountain (Cameroon), among others. Some of the copycats were more successful than others, but none achieved the magic of the original. It’s special and rare when the most creative and talented people come from around the world to a location to build new things. Such innovation hotbeds, from the Renaissance in Florence to the Enlightenment in Britain, have played an enormous role in economic history. And as many well-intentioned policymakers discovered, these places are both hard to replicate and fragile to maintain.