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A Letter from 2020
Auckerman writes: "Mark Summerfield, of Perl Press , has written an excellent article over at OsOpinion. It's written as a letter from his future self on what life will be like in 20 years. Kinda scary and certainly worst case scenerio, but his point gets across."
Yawn
Guys: It's just software. It is not the end of the world. there are more important things in life than this. Really.
It gets pretty tiresome after a year or two guys. Can't this band play any other numbers?
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Dear Elvis,
Greetings from the year 2000! I'm writing you from my auto-piloted aircar on my way to work. Normally my wife, Claudia Schiffer, takes the aircar, but my jet pack is in the shop this week.
I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for making the decision to major in Near Eastern Studies rather than Computer Science. Excellent idea. I now work for a multi-billion dollar Near Eastern Studies company while my Unix hacking friends beg for quarters in the street.
By the way, you should probably sell all that Cisco stock you've got. Networking is going nowhere. Invest in cold fusion.
Sincerely,
You
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Give me liberty or give me something of equal or lesser value from your glossy 32-page catalog.
Bingo -- stop right there. That is exactly what I'm getting at. Is this a problem? Yes. Should we be concerned? Absolutely. Should we do something about it? Of course we should.
Should we keep preaching to the already converted?
NO.
The big fallacy here is in thinking that Slashdot is anything but our little geek soapbox to rant upon, but that's all it is. I'd like to see some changes too, but this isn't the place to bring them about. A start, sure, but you're sufficently riled up & organized that it's now time to move on to bigger strategies -- write (with atoms & paper, not bits & keys!) to your congressmen and let them know how important this is. Don't bitch about it to me -- I'm already on your side. Bitch about it to people that can do something about the problem. If you invest all your energy here then the world is going to pass you by, and the issue you're so worked up about will never be helped by your contribution.
That would almost be worse than anything else, wouldn't it?
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
I'm not saying the issue isn't important. It is, but this is no longer the best forum to raise your concerns. Just about everyone here is already on your side; the goal now should be to move forward and convince people that actually matter -- members of congress, judges, and our presidents & governors. Arguably, the private sector is at least as important, but you're never going to get them on your side on this one so it's a dead end to go after them.
There are more important issues. Copyright is a strange & muddied thing, and very interesting in these GNU / Linux / mp3 / Napster / etc days. But it's not the end of the world. Sorry, but that's all there is to it. It ties in to some very dangerous issues (the AOL-TimeWarner merger terrifies me, for example) but there are more important things to worry about. Health care. Education. Defense. Ecology. Et cetera -- pick any one you choose. Just because copyright plays a role in our livlihoods does not, by that very connection, make it the most important issue on the docket -- and implying such implies quite a bit about the self-importance of the readers here. Is software a big deal? Sure, I guess. But give me a break, get a grip on reality. The jonny one note thing gets really, really old after a while...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
1984 is about government getting into our private lives. If governments weren't corrupt, corporations wouldn't have the power to be corrupt.
Splitting up the 500 richest corporations and giving the money to the public isn't going to solve any problems. We should have more freedom to skirt around these ridiculous laws, not make laws to strip away more freedom (elect Harry Browne)
That would be against the DMCA. According to the DMCA, all border crossings to Canada are considered devices allowing people to get around copyright protections and thus, are illegal.
I don't forget how it was to be a kid on the Bboards.
All the stuff you couldn't download... it was a bunch of porn and warez and dumb online games.
Still, the old apache systems were quite cute, and though I don't miss the connection speeds, it was quite convenient to have everything a little boy shouldn't have in one place. Anarchist's handbook and warez comander keen games in one place. As it went on, it got more focused as a message board tool and less as a pure file-leech place. And that's how the internet started, too. What will the next generation of networking tools be?
This was pre-linux popularity, pre-slashdot. What will replace the internet? A corporate network like Microsoft.net? I'm guessing (just guessing) digital tv and transferrence of free movies and songs. And why shouldn't music videos be given free from companies, or sold for cheap.
Is our personal freedom worth more than the good of society? Yes. So let's fight for the next technology to be as free as possible.
-Ben
I guess the big difference is, Wired publishes all his Henny Penny tripe.
I'm not so willing to bet joe blue-collar-worker has exactly the same political ideas as niles upper-management. And guess who has the money? Upper management of course. And they give that money to political groups that represent *their* interests, not necessarily the interests of their employees. Corporations are not politically homogenous entities. In fact I'd say that the hierarchy in corporations reflect the general political differences of the population at large. Those at top have substantially different views than those at bottom. Now, if corporations where some sort of socialist communes, then perhaps we could get away with thinking that corporations are "us" therefore we have only to blame "ourselves". Just look at YOUR corporation and who is in charge. Do you coders in the trenches really have that much power over your ivory tower business school PHBs and marketing suits? Do you *really* think they share your political views identically?
Yes human nature is at fault. But the bad part of it is at fault more.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
...can pry my unix/unix-like operating systems from my cold dead fingers.
Right to Read
I'm not trying to belittle you or anything, but I've seen several of your postings and I just think you're overly optimistic.
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Stupid sexy Flanders.
Al Gore enthusiastically gave them money. There is a huge difference. He should have said "I took the initiative in spending tax money on the Internet." That would have been 100% accurate. As it stands, his comment makes it sound like the federal funding was the key element. Gore has a habit of making statements that belittle the acheivements of the individual. He believes that the goverment is responsible for the strong economy, low crime, and the Internet. In reality these things are the result of dedicated work by the people of America, and the government is merely the tool of the people.
The article was indeed drivel as another poster pointed out. But all the scary legal compromising going on IS something to be concerned about. Fortunately, there are things we can do with existing technology to preserve our rights...
Software. Use open source. If you need Win32, don't upgrade beyond Win 98.
Hardware. Never buy RDRAM-based motherboards.
Music. Buycott the MPAA but start looking into new indie groups too. Try MOD music. Rip your CD's at home into OGG, not MP3. Share your OGGs via Gnutella. Never buy an Audio CDR - always use data CDrs.
Movies. Watch 'em in the theater and buy DVD's as you see fit. The MPAA has a lock on this one, we don't have much legal opportunity to fight back (ideas anyone?)
Privacy. Use PGP.
Vote! email and write your congressman - get informed about what the DMCA and the UCITA and the other threats are. Slashdot's YRO section is easily one of the best references. Support the EFF. get informed - and help inform.
Don't blame me - I voted for Howard Dean. http://dean2004.blogspot.com
And exactly who corrupts the government? That's right... Big Business.
Don't forget that the US voters are also partially to blame. We can be such sheep sometime. We vote for candidates the way we root for football teams where we should be looking at candidates as interviewees for a job. I too support the idea of getting special interest perks out of politics (or perhaps politics out of government), but I think that ultimately the responsibility lies with the voters.
Remember, if you're able to vote and don't, you're not allowed to complain.
-Jennifer
20 years is not all that far off into the future and while technology has changed drastically I see no reason for that to give somone the impression we're going to be in a Big Brother situation with MS controlling the monitors. If history (remember that kiddies) has taught us anything it's that the big companies that once roared tend to get the smack-down after fscking the public over many years.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the 1970's the same cute "scenario" could've been written about IBM except that the last copy of Sgt Peppers would've been on an 8-track.
Bah...
Today was a great day. I finally reformatted my house's hard drive and installed Linux on it, so the toaster, blender, television and vibrating easy chair are finally working again. I'm still having some trouble getting X Windows installed in the bathroom, but I think it's because all the BSODs from the old operating system still have the toilet clogged up.
I took my car in to the mechanic today. He said that the problem with my windshield wipers was that I had Perl in /usr/bin/perl18 instead of /usr/bin/perl. Well, duh! I swear, I was never cut out to be a mechanic.
Anyway, I have to go get ready for work. My shoes take a while to boot up, so I must be going now.
ZPengo
Got Rhinos?
Yes, it is a worst-case scenario. And, personally, I think that things will never get that bad. But I see things leaning that way; corporations becoming more and more powerful, the freedom of the Internet starting to be reigned in... It's scary, but what can we do (besides elect Ralph Nader).
The article leaves out a big part, though. The United States may be heading towards a terrible future, but what about other countries? Copyrights and patents could get so insane here in the USA that somebody can patent the alphabet (I wouldn't put it past them...) but those patents don't hold water in other countries. If things get too hairy here in the USA, let's all just defect North to Canada and leave behind idiotic copyright laws. Sounds like a sound plan to me.
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But what are the chances that joe blue-collar-worker when put in niles upper-management's place wouldn't do the same despicable things? What truly makes joe the more admirable of the two in this scenario? joe's values and politcal ideas are likely just as self-serving as niles' are, we just tend to side with joe because the niles already had his lucky break. His parents were millionaires, or his friend was in upper-management too.
I think Ted's point was more along the lines of "People, almost ALL people, are selfish and greedy, and aim only to make their own lives easier and more comfortable, while not giving a damn about anyone else."
For example, as I was driving home from class today, I noticed while I was stopped at a light that the median was COVERED with black gum spots. Who sincerely thought to themselves that throwing their chewed gum out the window was a viable alternative to wrapping it up in a piece of paper and throwing it in a garbage can later? A whole lot of people must have, because there was a whole lot of gum on that median. They somehow justified to themselves that throwing their crap out the window for someone else to deal with was OK. How? It made their life easier.
Do you honestly think that it was niles upper-management who was throwing his gum out the window? Nope, chances are it was joe.
While I know this is a very trivial example, I think it illustrates the spirit of Ted's comment quite well.
Right, but I feel you fail to really see the realtionship between business, common people and goverment.
Business relies on common people to fund them, the goverment also relies on common people to fund them too. With a relationship of two thing so powerful with the same goals in mind, it easy to screw over people.
Think about this, say we vote someone into office. He (or she) seams like a good honest person. A business man comes up to him and offer him and 400 other people outragest gifts and reward for voting one way. The bill they vote on is, let's say the DMCA. The media, which is the one *REALLY* in control of the people, protries it as a great bill to help the artist, and say something along the line of "it's for the childern, save the childern. protect the work of your childern" and everyone in the public think, oh yeah! These guys are doing great things for us. Little do they know the law that they pass is the root of all evil to be. And if it fails, someone rewrites it until it something the people will fall for.
Ok you're going to blam the people, "humanity as a whole". That's fine. But where do people get the real information about the subjects? They aren't born with it. They have to be tought. Where do they get tought? Schools! Who are the schools? The Goverment!
Most people send thier kids into goverment school, teaching socialism and how to be a productive, mindless slave for "the good of society". Then kids leave goverment schools and where do they end up? Most of them go to "Public Colleges". Who run these schools? Business people!! People who only goal is to make money. Sure there are a few school theach ideas, but most soul goal is to make money, and produce people who make money for businesses.
Great! We have a group of people that are mindless slaves to corparations with the ideas of socialism implaneted there by the goverment and businesses.
And we are the problem? No, we are not the people, the problem is the ideas that been implanted by businesses and politicians over 200 years. Heck the idea1 might been around for 1000's of years.
Or it's becuase all the mindless slaves people living in this world don't vote, and leave people in office. Most people don't want the goverment in thier lives, and which to live free without worries. Today politicians are selling votes, like businesses sell products. Heck, you could tell people "we are going to have a income tax, but don't worry, we will only tax the "rich"". Opps, that worked.
What are people really voting for anyways? A idea? A idea of what? A way to live thier lives? Where do they get these ideas? Do they want what they know to be good? What do they know? They know that they are slaves and can everything surpiled to them.
Isn't that what the goverment is today?
I think it is.
The US is screwed. It's too late to change it. Just like all goverments in the past, time is up for the US goverment.
Rome is buring...
MarNuke
People corrupt politicians. Business are just made up of hundreds and thousands of people who want to get ahead in life, and the upper management uses the weight of the organization to force some changes. Labor parties do the same thing. So do religious groups. Sure, individuals used to have a voice in politics, but the voice of a large collective silences many individuals. So lets not target "Businesses". People as a whole are willing to backstab each other to get a step up in life, and we are part of that society. Business isn't the problem. Humanity is, and by extension, _we_ are the problem.
Of course, that's not an excuse for agnostic apathy. Sure, the agnostic apathetics are technically correct-- they don't know anything and they don't care about anything. You don't worry about your foundation breaking when you haven't built anything. Rather, we must understand and expect that this is how the world works, and we need to manipulate the system for the greater good of everyone, not just for our own "greater good".
Only when we finally admit that We are the problem can we benefit humanity as a whole. Until then, everyone is still wrapped in their own selfishness and pride.
-Ted
(Score -1: Karma Whore)
Network 23 lives, folks. It looks just like that. Is it gonna be that bad in 2020? Maybe not, but I'll bet it gets worse before it gets better. We don't have enough of a good start (lawyers/bottom of the sea) yet.
What the hell, no flying cars in 2020? I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Microsoft's attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Apples' Cube. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
What point would that be? "I can write silly future fiction that makes 1984 look realisitic"?
Its not a worst case scenerio, its a no case scenerio. At best it could pass as a satire of geek fears.
In a word, ugh.
-Kahuna Burger
...will work for Chick tracts...
Back in 7th grade I had an English teacher (Robert Smiley) who gave us a creative writing project where we were to write ourselves a letter that was to be opened 10 years down the road. The subject matter was to be what we envisioned our lives being like at that time frame in our future. Well, about 17 years later my mother ran across this small envelope addressed to me stating 'if the fates allow open me now' and a wax seal of a penny and the year 1992 impressed into the wax where the date on the penny was. I opened it, completely having forgotten what I wrote and was really surprised. You see, the 'predictions' were all wrong but the mindset wasn't. No, I didn't go to college like I had foreseen, but I made references to free speech (was really into Jefferson at the time and writing a report for another class) and online communications (at 11 I was addicted to Compuserve and my new 300 baud screemer..I digress) being the 'in thing' for people to speak freely where the couldn't in the real world. Opening the letter to myself had a profound impact on me and I spent many months contemplating my thoughts as an 11 year old and rejuvinating ideas/goals that had become dormant. So far, the end result being my return to college and certain passions rekindled. I recently wrote myself a new letter and placed it in my mothers safe deposit box for some date in the future. This article is great in the sense that it has the right feel and vision. It is probably not far off (eerie) from where things are headed. It would be interesting to see this letter in 2020 and see how close to a bullseye it is.I wonder if any of Mr. Smiley's students are out there who found thier letters. If you had a similar project please reply as it would be great to hear the results/thoughts/outcome.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
I guess what I'm trying to say is...
There is no difference in motivation between joe blue collar and joe white collar. It's just that the white collar folks have more means than everyone else.
It's a catagorical denial of Marxism, actually. Marx claims that eventually the working class will overthrow the ruling class and live in Utopia. "THIS revolution will be different! This revolution will be the LAST!"
What Marx fails to see is that the problem is not with the means (money and power) but the motive (greed and pride). Not all humans have money and power, but almost all humans are greedy and proud. It is pure hubris to claim that we the workers as a whole would act any different if we were in power.
There are two courses of action. You can become agnostic apathetic-- another term for a cynic, meaning you don't do anything. Or you can shed the evil motives and then work the means in favor of humanity (and against the system itself).
Clearly this is a difficult task, but only because personal humility is learned one mind at a time. It's easy to coordinate selfish people, but it's hard to even find self-sacrificing people, much less become one.
-Ted
Flying cars
He IS (will be?) bald, overweight, and twice divorced. But if he wrote that, Word.NET would instantly trigger a Negative Attitude Warning and he'd be sent to the Valenti-Kaplan Reeducation Camp. Few people come alive from that place.