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3G Is A Dog, And Other Truths
naylorjs writes: "This is an interesting article from the BBC about the technological future, in particular broadband and wireless. What makes it more interesting is the comments about nation states and such like. A certain amount of lateral thinking in use here, something that we don't see enough of in the technology field. IMHO."
fp?
timothy sucks here to avoid lameness filter
I don't believe in nothing no more... I'm going to law school!
what.
There was an interesting article last year in MIT's Technology Review Magazine about Negroponte leaving the Media Lab, leaving the Lab's future uncertain. The article makes a number of references to the Media Lab, including Biotech Research. It's interesting that he still refers to the Lab as "we" - I assume it's hard to let go, and probably good for the Lab to keep him around as an advisor.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
EVEYNIGHTIPRAYTOGODT HATNICHLOASNECRGORPONTEDOESNOT BUTS&\#32;HIS"BITS"INTOTIMMAHS "ATOM"!!!!!!!
GPL considered harmful.... Yes, the explicit purpose of the GPL is to hurt programmers' livelihoods. See Richard Stallman's essay, "The GNU Manifesto," for a frank statement that this is the case. Mr. Stallman does not care whether the programmers harmed by the GPL are working for Microsoft or trying to eke out an honest living despite Microsoft; he wishes to put all of them out of business. Trouble is, it's much easier to hurt the little guy than it is to hurt Microsoft, so guess who suffers?
It is, in fact, ironic just how much the FSF's strategies resemble those of Microsoft.
Microsoft seeks to put other companies such as Netscape out of business by giving away free equivalents of every product they make. The Free Software Foundation seeks to put other companies out of business by giving away free equivalents of every products they make.
Bill Gates has all the money he wants but is motivated by a lust for power and control. Richard Stallman has all of the money he wants but is motivated by a lust for power and control.
Microsoft has a vast hoard of software whose development and licensing it controls. The FSF has an even larger hoard of software whose development and licensing it controls.
Meet the new boss -- same as the old boss.
TOP TEN SIGNS YOUR NETWORK APPLIANCE IS BASED ON LINUX
10) Console sometimes says "Filesystems have gone too long without fsck".
9) Randomly connects to slashdot and posts insipid comments under
anonymous-coward@yourdomain.com.
8) Supposed to be a web cache, but somehow turned into warez cache.
7) Whitepaper is 10,000 pages long, 1 page of info and 9,999 pages of
source code.
6) Manual only comes in two languages, Finnish and elisp.
5) Case made out of space age synthetic alloy of duct tape and dental
floss.
4) Not really sure what it does, but weenie administrator said purchasing
it would be good for "the community".
3) You get a mail from some dork named CmdrTaco wanting you to do an
interview about it.
2) You attach a line printer and it starts alternating between printing
banners of "FREE KEVIN" and something called DeCSS.
1) All your other network appliances complain about it getting drunk
and blasting the free software song at 3am.
This sux0rz bigtime, I don't even know if I can post. Yo.
Marxism:
Get to work. You aren't going to get paid. Your work is for the good of the people.
Free Software:
Get to work. You aren't going to get paid. Your work is for the good of the people.
I'm telling you, and you, and everyone else too: GNU/Linux is the future. If you don't believe me well I think you are probably an "astroturfer" hired by Microsoft. Many people have been hired by The Great Satan (aka Microsoft) to discredit the fine work of Linux Thorvalds and his crew. But don't let the bastards get ya down -- Linux is the real deal, and won't be surpassed by any Capitalist Programme. I don't care if you are from the racist state of Great Britain, or the enlightened state of Israel, the facts overwhelm any opinions that may be present: If you don't like Linux then you are a dirty good-for-nothing Microsoft-loving clone.
And get this...... I hear Macintoshes only have one mouse button! Can you believe that? Those poor ignorant saps. My mouse has six buttons and that is not counting my scroll wheel. Just last week I was play Quake V and some guy kept camping. It was really pissing me off, you see. So, I get my mouse strapped on.. and I assign button six to my Proton Cannon -- and that guy tries camping. Well, let me tell you... after he tasted my proton cannon he stopped camping. Unfortunately Quake V is not Free Software as discussed in the Debian GUN/LINUX Free Software Guidelines, so I deleted it from my hard drive and threw it out the window. I won't allow proprietary software in my home. The capitalist roaders who enslave us with their "intellectual property" rhetoric have to be stopped. By violence if necessary.
I am a firm believer in DIRECT ACTION. A very firm believer. Democracy and direct action -- all power to the proletariat. Only through unity can we overcome the capitalist running dogs. I for one will not allow binaries that disregard Source Code Freedom onto my system, or my wife's system. Yeah, my wife's system. I have taught her how to use EMACS and program in LISP. She says she is at least 100 times more productive under the GNU environment than she ever was under Micro$oft Windoze. And hey, if she ever says otherwise I slap the bitch. Slap her hard. You've got to understand it is all about freedom... From Each According to His Ability, To Each According to his need -- this revolutionary principle is the foundation upon which Free Software rests, and I strongly support it.
We can't just let these Freedom-hating programmers from Micro$oft push us around. We gotta stand united, you know? Don't let the bastards push you around. Am I qualified to make such statements? AM I QUALIFIED??? You thieving moneychanger! I am the most qualified person on this web site. Why? How? I'm a hardcore protestor of the DCMA. The DCMA is how the man is going to crack down on us -- however they have forgotten the Constitution. I know the Bill of Rights by heart. The DMCA wants to destroy Our Right To Keep and Bear Child Pornography, and I'm not going to let big brother strip away our rights. I'm going to stand up and fight. Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn't take this kind of totalitarian bitchslapping from their governmental Noosphere, and I'm not going to either. I've been standing in front of the White House with a "Just Say No To DMCA -- Free SKYLAB" sign for 2 weeks now.
Why, you ask? Because I'm qualified. I'm good enough, and dammit, I'm qualified. I'm an Open Free Sources programmer and I have a right to my opinion. I've been swappin' rhymes with my bro Wesley Crusher, and we both agree that programmers getting paid for their work is morally wrong. So yeah, to say I'm qualified is one thing, but the fact is I'm overqualified. I'm just that damn good. Ya wanna bet? You challenge me to battle? Okay, you Microsoft Sloth -- choose any random segment of the GNU Hurd source code, and I will tell you exactly what file it is from, and who wrote it. Yeah, I'm that good. Flawless victory. Don't believe me? Fuck you. Just try me. I'm downloading MP3s and Britney Spears porn as we speak. They say I'm a criminal, but I'm not the only one. Open the sources. Crusade the Noosphere. Free Rawanda! Don't let the bastards get ya down! Free software or Death. And I'm not joking.
Peace, out.
Eric "Da Man" Hanson
eric@pegasi.net
(finger me for GNU/PGP)
Looks like Santa should have thrown those kids some HOT GRITS
Q: You say digital technology will end the nation state and eventually produce a global cyber state. Now, speaking at this moment, that looks particularly wrong, doesn't it? You have a war being fought in defence of states; you have people who don't have states - Muslims and Palestinians - saying can we have a nation state, please? So, that prediction has turned out to be very wrong.
A: No, actually, it's turned out to be quite right. Let me explain how. Clearly, the notion of a piece of land, definable - these are atoms and they have an edge and a limiting contour - as something that you relate to as a culture or as an individual is extraordinarily important. What's happened is that the nation state as we know it today happens to be the wrong size. It's too big to be local and it's too small to be global; the UK is a perfect example.
For a better answer to this question, try reading Spiral Dynamics [www.spiraldynamics.com].
Spiral Dynamics theory concerns itself with what people and nations value, and according to SD there are about seven or eight basic value systems, or 'value MEMEs' that operate in people.
Each vMEME is colour coded for ease of reference--they are (very basically):
BEIGE: vaues instinctual basic survival eg. homeless people, starving masses
PURPLE: values ethnic tribes, family and mythic rituals, eg. superstitions, corporate 'tribes'
RED: values power, impulsivity, egocentricity, and rebelling, eg. streetgangs, frontier mentality, James Bond villains
BLUE: values conformance, absolutist principles of 'right' and 'wrong', Order, and the One True Way, eg. Puritan America, Confucian China, Islamic fundamentalism
ORANGE: values achievement, escape from the 'herd', the world is a chessboard and you play to Win, eg. Wall Street, Colonialism
GREEN: values sensitivity, communitarian human bonding, dialogue, relationships, multiculturalism, eg. Postmodernism, Greenpeace
YELLOW: values integration of all of the above, as life is a kaliedoscope of natural hierarchies, systems and forms.
So even with this very rough map of the different vMEMEs, we can tentatively see that the USA is predominantly an ORANGE (personal achievement, we protect our interestes) oriented culture, but also has a significant percentage of the GREEN (no culture is better than any other, USA is an oppressor) vMEME active.
Contrast that with other parts of the world that are still firmly set in BLUE--there is One True Way, Our God is the Only God, our culture is Good and it's order must be preserved.
Or even parts of Africa that value the tribe and where lines of kinship are considered very important (PURPLE).
And applying our vMEME map to the current conflict, it would seem that the Taliban is an unhealthy mixture of the BLUE 'our religion is True,' vMEME with the RED power striving vMEME (and we'll personally take power, commit terrorist acts, and kill any of our people who disagree with us).
And remember that many people devote maybe half their lives guided by whichever vMEME is operating in them, be it ORANGE achievement or BLUE conformity.
And yet, we're somehow supposed to believe that, given enough mobile phones, our differences are going to dissapear and we're going to form a Global Cyber State?
It's difficult to see how digitally connecting everyone on the outside is somehow going to make the differences on the inside dissapear.
Imagine a student phoning a terrorist:
Western student (GREEN): let's talk, for I aknowledge and respect your culture...
Arab extreemist (RED/blue): You are not of my culture, you are an infidel--die infidel, Die!!
Perhaps the trouble with Dr. Negroponte's answer is that he's looking, like a good technologist, from the outside, at the physical systems, and talking about stuff ilke 'the size of the state being wrong'.
But by using SD we can start to fathom the depth and breadth of the inner codes and values that are operating in people and nations, and why the conflict exists not just between states but also between the different vMEMEs operating within single states.
eg.:
'they attacked us and we are just in punishing them' (BLUE),
'we have to protect our oil interests and stabilise the area' (ORANGE),
'America is oppressive and interfering with minority cultures' (GREEN)