Selling Dreams in the Age of Speculative Technology
In today’s financial markets, a troubling asymmetry has emerged between those who sell technological dreams and those who buy them. Founders, CEOs, and early investors often know how distant true commercialization remains, while many young retail investors — driven by optimism and headlines — see only the promise, not the timeline. This imbalance creates a structural divide: the informed side monetizes expectations, while the uninformed side absorbs the losses. Quantum computing offers a striking example. Most of its current revenue still comes from government-funded research rather than private demand, yet market narratives portray it as an imminent revolution. When expectations accelerate faster than the underlying science, disappointment becomes inevitable. And when executives quietly sell shares while retail investors rush in, the market ceases to be a platform for innovation — it becomes a transfer mechanism of wealth, moving value from hope to disillusionment. Quantum computing m...