Technical Superiority Without Institutional Readiness: The War of the Currents as a Historical Precedent for AI Governance

Working paper (Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22879899) arguing that institutional readiness — capital access, organizational capacity, and legal/regulatory standing — better predicts technology diffusion than technical superiority alone. Developed through the historical case of the War of the Currents (Tesla/Westinghouse AC vs. Edison DC) and the collapse of Tesla's Wardenclyffe project, connected explicitly to the author's related working papers on institutional readiness in AI governance (The Adaptation Gap, The Human Capital Gap, The Control Gap).

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Open Science Framework
Published
2026-09-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/z527j
Primary Topic
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Type
preprint
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Technical Superiority Without Institutional Readiness: The War of the Currents as a Historical Precedent for AI Governance

Alfredo Merlet
Open Science Framework
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
preprint

Technical Superiority Without Institutional Readiness: The War of the Currents as a Historical Precedent for AI Governance

Alfredo Merlet
preprint en

Abstract

Working paper (Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22879899) arguing that institutional readiness — capital access, organizational capacity, and legal/regulatory standing — better predicts technology diffusion than technical superiority alone. Developed through the historical case of the War of the Currents (Tesla/Westinghouse AC vs. Edison DC) and the collapse of Tesla's Wardenclyffe project, connected explicitly to the author's related working papers on institutional readiness in AI governance (The Adaptation Gap, The Human Capital Gap, The Control Gap).

Open Science Framework
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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Technical Superiority Without Institutional Readiness: The War of the Currents as a Historical Precedent for AI Governance — Alfredo Merlet · Open Science Framework (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS