First, legal protection comes at a price that is more valueable than the idea. Second, making the idea happen is more valuable than having one. I am full of ideas, and I consider all those which I have not yet Made to be nothing more than daydreams. You can get a job daydreaming... being an unarmed security guard for example.

You are obviously correct that legal protection is expensive and making an idea commercially viable is more so. Nevertheless the motivation for this site is to stimulate the publication of ideas to facilitate investigation of and general dispersement of innovation and surely some type of fundamental reward would encourage this. The patent laws were conceived in the concept of promoting new ideas for the public good but of late years bureaucracy and procedural expence acts more to squelch rather than promote innovation. All good ideas start as daydreams with some sort of good rational basis. Science fiction has been the initial seed for many currently realized products and processes and has stimulated many scientists and engineers to enter their fields. This should be encouraged, not dismissed.

mr2560,Ideas are worthless if nothing gets done about them. Putting them into practice is expensive and risky, as well as time conwsuming and emotionally exhausing. No one will do this if they cannot protect their ideas. No venture capitalist will put up the dough if you don't have IP. I am an economist and I have done a few studies on the relationship between innovation and intellectual property laws. Basically there is a strong correlation between areas of endeavor that are easily protected and progress in these fields. The industrial revolution began almost the instant patent laws were developed.

The idea that human progress was at a standstill until the profit motive was conjoined to creative thinking is preposterous. Undoubtedly good ideas were propagated well before patenting because the exclusive use of an idea merely reserves profits for one enterpriser whereas many competitive enterprises can develop the idea and exploit it in the most efficient way. Limited patenting can be useful but the way the patents today are extended indefinitely only limits the proper exploitation of ideas. The patenting now going on in genetic engineering squashes the possible surge in the field. And the oft repeated nonsense that good ideas are a dime a dozen is pure bullshit propagated by people who value money more that creativity.