Slashdot Mirror
Patent Invention Machines
kryzx writes: "Here's one to tickle your imagination: using genetic programming to come up with new, patentable solutions to problems. Could be happening very soon. Here's an article
at MIT Technology Review. This work, being done at Stanford
and Genetic Programming Inc. by
John Koza and company has already succeeded at reproducing quite a few ideas for existing patents, ranging from old to very recent. It's apparently much easier to compare against existing patents than sift through hundreds of surviving algorithms to determine if they are useful, original, and patentable.) Also, this company is a good target for your tech envy, with their 1,000-node Beowulf-style
cluster
of Pentium II 350's and 70-node cluster of 533 MHz DEC Alpha's. (There are pix, too. PII cluster on the main page, Alphas here.) Wanna play with the toys? They have
job openings for programmers. :-)"
Let's face it, if you can't put chains on it, if you can't put a fence around it, or lock it up in some manner, it does not belong to you. Software, ideas, drawings, music, plans, it makes no difference. Once you release it, it becomes like the air that we breathe. It belongs to nobody and to everybody.
The only way that IP laws will be enforceable in the age of the internet is to institute Orwellian laws whereby the governement is given fascist powers to spy on everybody. Already, hundreds of millions of copies of copyrighted software are being used freely around the world and there is nothing the manufacturers can do about it, short of instituting full blown fascism.
Wait a minute, aren't they doing that already? Aren't all ISPs in the US and Europe already keeping a log of all user activities? A government that finds it necessary to spy on its own people, not only does not deserve to last, but cannot possibly last. A house divided and all that...
Hit them where it hurt the most, the pocket book. It's our money that is being used to enact stupid laws like the DMCA. Without money, they have no power. There is only one solution against fascist IP laws: Download it all and copy it all! And use it all for free! Don't give them your money so they can turn around and use it against you.