ASICs are inevitable and follow the standard free market model. Think about it - gold miners used to mine gold with shovels. Then one day one miner invested in new technology, mined lots of gold with it and profited. Then all other miners followed and switched to new technology. Market equalised. Well, apart from those who were too cheap/lazy/old fashioned and decided not to adopt new technology. ASICs profit those who invested time and/or money in getting it working. First mover advantage is the only thing that drives progress in this case. Eventually the difficulty will go up and ASICs won't be as profitable at which point someone will start thinking of the next generation with improved efficiency.