Excellent points. And I expect you are right. I argued elsewhere that no matter what the general level of physical prosperity is, there will be some structured activity of exchange that we could call an 'economy'. After all, I could walk out the door right now and live out of dumpsters, a hunter-gatherer from thousands of years ago might find that level of existence to be far beyond what he would call necessary. Yet instead I slave away, considering his idea of great wealth to be far below acceptable.
I imagine that you don't check the seals and paperwork yourself and verify that they aren't counterfeits. You probably also don't check that the pump doesn't have some flow inhibitor or whatever stuck into it after the inspector left. I am not criticizing, probably almost no one does. My point is that there are other mechanisms that discourage fraud besides some guy going around taping seals to the pump.
"If government doesn't do it, no one will" is is a false dichotomy. There are other ways to achieve the same end without using government coercion.
The challenge would then be the distribution of resources. Take hunger for example. There is more than enough food in the world to feed everybody. But still some get fat while others starve to death. Or perhaps, why bother building automated factories when you won't get anything in return? Why should anyone build/repair/maintain a robofactory just to make stuff for people who have nothing to offer in return?
What pisses me off with streams are the loud commercials where they have disabled the volume and mute controls. I don't know if it is possible, but I would love a FF plugin that provided these controls regardless.
There are a lot of statements here about what we need to do to reform the government or the tax codes. Unfortunately, changing the tax code will just change behavior in response, which puts a cap on how much can be squeezed out of the stone. I'll offer a different view: all this discussion of which percentage should be paid by which entity is pointless. The government doesn't need any more money. If we somehow managed to collect significantly more in taxes from corporations like Google (very doubtful), they would just squander it like they did the money they already collected.
I think you gravely underestimate human ingenuity. People will find other ways to exchange value for value, just like they did when the blacksmiths and all the other low tech stuff was phased out. All the automated production capability does is raise the general level of prosperity, just like previous technological advances. Since personal preferences will always differ, there will always be some basis for exchange. In other words, an economy. Who knows, maybe slashdot mod points will become a currency of the future.
All it will take is one "incident" in the right place, and they will clamp all the new restrictions in place as a temporary measure to protect the children. There's no need to introduce it piecemeal.
Thank you for a sensible response to balance out the slew of 'all employers suck' nonsense. Sorry no mod points atm. I've seen a growing trend of employers with unlimited sick days or something similar. Can't say whether or not that is global, just my observation. So much for the growing 'anti labor mentality'
Sounds like what they might need is a way for the picker to override the computer route if he knows a better one. Just scan the item and the system adapts. Maybe even track how well each picker improves the computer route and make an incentive. Could be interesting to see the results.
Not necessarily. All we would need is some mechanism to automatically retrieve a public key for any intended recipient, like a phone book or directory. Heck, just add it on to the SMTP protocol or something. Yeah I know there are other issues to be resolved. My point is we could work out a technical solution, the real problem would be getting everyone to switch from the entrenched protocol we have now.
Now I understand the plan. The gov is going to close the budget deficit by data mining everyone's email, Facebook, etc. for preference and tendency data that will then be sold to advertisers for tons of money! This is a great idea and doesn't require any tax increases.
I would love to see this as well. It is ridiculous that I can't make an outbound call while driving without having to risk death by unlocking the phone first. Yes, I know iPhone allows this.
Anyway, this shouldn't be too far off the map there are apps already that provide a sandbox for corporate environments. Seems like what you describe isn't too far off that path.
I don't understand where corporations aren't accountable. People stop buying their products. I've never had a corporation force me to buy anything. Government, on the other hand, not only forces me to buy stuff, it forces me to buy stuff I can't use.
Because it won't just go where I want. It will go where some busybody decides I should go instead. It will report where I go back to untrustworthy and unaccountable organizations. It will go where some hacker/serial killer/kidnapper decides it should go.
Thank you! I thought the same thing about all the hospitals. I worked for a hospital for a while and believe me, they don't do disaster planning or even equipment life cycle planning. You would think with all the lip service paid to 'patient care' that continuity and disaster planning would be more of a priority, but no. Usually these aren't real businesses and they have no incentive to behave like one. As another poster mentioned, evacuation is usually their continuity plan.
Slashdot Mirror
Excellent points. And I expect you are right. I argued elsewhere that no matter what the general level of physical prosperity is, there will be some structured activity of exchange that we could call an 'economy'. After all, I could walk out the door right now and live out of dumpsters, a hunter-gatherer from thousands of years ago might find that level of existence to be far beyond what he would call necessary. Yet instead I slave away, considering his idea of great wealth to be far below acceptable.
The coercion is making me pay for it whether I wish to or not. And making business owners participate whether they wish to or not.
I have done this and it works perfectly as long as you don't plug anything else into the strips.
I imagine that you don't check the seals and paperwork yourself and verify that they aren't counterfeits. You probably also don't check that the pump doesn't have some flow inhibitor or whatever stuck into it after the inspector left. I am not criticizing, probably almost no one does. My point is that there are other mechanisms that discourage fraud besides some guy going around taping seals to the pump. "If government doesn't do it, no one will" is is a false dichotomy. There are other ways to achieve the same end without using government coercion.
Plants and animals are already automating the vast majority of the process of food production. Yet the farmers still found something to do.
The challenge would then be the distribution of resources. Take hunger for example. There is more than enough food in the world to feed everybody. But still some get fat while others starve to death. Or perhaps, why bother building automated factories when you won't get anything in return? Why should anyone build/repair/maintain a robofactory just to make stuff for people who have nothing to offer in return?
Money can just be destroyed, it is called inflation. One of the many reasons we aren't still using the solidus.
What? I was told by another poster that big corporations would hold all the cards if government didn't step in.
What pisses me off with streams are the loud commercials where they have disabled the volume and mute controls. I don't know if it is possible, but I would love a FF plugin that provided these controls regardless.
There are a lot of statements here about what we need to do to reform the government or the tax codes. Unfortunately, changing the tax code will just change behavior in response, which puts a cap on how much can be squeezed out of the stone. I'll offer a different view: all this discussion of which percentage should be paid by which entity is pointless. The government doesn't need any more money. If we somehow managed to collect significantly more in taxes from corporations like Google (very doubtful), they would just squander it like they did the money they already collected.
We need to come to terms with the fact that a big and growing proportion of people will not be employed
Who can name scifi authors who deal with this subject? I'll kick out Nancy Kress' 'Sleepless' series for starters
I think you gravely underestimate human ingenuity. People will find other ways to exchange value for value, just like they did when the blacksmiths and all the other low tech stuff was phased out. All the automated production capability does is raise the general level of prosperity, just like previous technological advances. Since personal preferences will always differ, there will always be some basis for exchange. In other words, an economy. Who knows, maybe slashdot mod points will become a currency of the future.
All it will take is one "incident" in the right place, and they will clamp all the new restrictions in place as a temporary measure to protect the children. There's no need to introduce it piecemeal.
Engineers did all that stuff not scientists. (that's humor)
Thank you for a sensible response to balance out the slew of 'all employers suck' nonsense. Sorry no mod points atm. I've seen a growing trend of employers with unlimited sick days or something similar. Can't say whether or not that is global, just my observation. So much for the growing 'anti labor mentality'
Very Euro-centric. You forget Life Science specialist Ahmed Apoopie
Sounds like what they might need is a way for the picker to override the computer route if he knows a better one. Just scan the item and the system adapts. Maybe even track how well each picker improves the computer route and make an incentive. Could be interesting to see the results.
Not necessarily. All we would need is some mechanism to automatically retrieve a public key for any intended recipient, like a phone book or directory. Heck, just add it on to the SMTP protocol or something. Yeah I know there are other issues to be resolved. My point is we could work out a technical solution, the real problem would be getting everyone to switch from the entrenched protocol we have now.
Now I understand the plan. The gov is going to close the budget deficit by data mining everyone's email, Facebook, etc. for preference and tendency data that will then be sold to advertisers for tons of money! This is a great idea and doesn't require any tax increases.
I would love to see this as well. It is ridiculous that I can't make an outbound call while driving without having to risk death by unlocking the phone first. Yes, I know iPhone allows this. Anyway, this shouldn't be too far off the map there are apps already that provide a sandbox for corporate environments. Seems like what you describe isn't too far off that path.
I don't understand where corporations aren't accountable. People stop buying their products. I've never had a corporation force me to buy anything. Government, on the other hand, not only forces me to buy stuff, it forces me to buy stuff I can't use.
I am enthusiastic about Microsoft's apparent desire to increase illegal copying.
Because it won't just go where I want. It will go where some busybody decides I should go instead. It will report where I go back to untrustworthy and unaccountable organizations. It will go where some hacker/serial killer/kidnapper decides it should go.
To be fair, if conditions are that bad at the hospital, evacuation is probably the best plan anyway.
Thank you! I thought the same thing about all the hospitals. I worked for a hospital for a while and believe me, they don't do disaster planning or even equipment life cycle planning. You would think with all the lip service paid to 'patient care' that continuity and disaster planning would be more of a priority, but no. Usually these aren't real businesses and they have no incentive to behave like one. As another poster mentioned, evacuation is usually their continuity plan.