I always feel awkwardly compelled to play Devil's Advocate when I see another post on the radio wonderland that True Believers think someday will be cognitive radio. There are problems with the way the FCC allocates spectrum now, sure, but Reed's plan creates a potentially much more dire situation than we already have.

For instance, it seems that for this technology to work, receivers are going to have to be independently addressable, broadcasting your listening or viewing choices to the public. It's not a far stretch to imagine a world where criminal profiling now includes the station you're listening to. How's that grab you?

Add to this the fact that by transmitting digitally, you double the royalties that broadcasters have to pay to organizations like the RIAA. Web stations like SOMA are out of business thanks to the DMCA, CARP and friends -- do we want to do the same to our hometown radio stations, too?

The technology is fascinating, of course. I'd love to see a separate band created to experiment with it. (Why not, say, half of the UHF band? It's hardly being used.) But as a rule, it shouldn't replace AM/FM radio. I think that'd be a disaster.