Socialism will up against the wall before capitalism because its workers will be more expensive and hence, obsoleted first.
Socialism is not about workers. According to the definition in Wikipedia: "Socialism is an economic system in which the means of production are commonly owned and controlled cooperatively; or a political philosophy advocating such a system.". Applied 19th century and early 20th century industrial society, this may have meant empowering the large masses of workers. Applying socialism to a world where robots do most jobs would just mean that everyone gets to share the robots and the results of their labor. People could fill their time educating themselves and doing philosophy, science and creating art.
Seriously, though - what's with the "getting dressed for the day was far too strenuous" tripe? I wear sweats or shorts when I work from home - so what? What's wrong with being comfortable?
Actually, it depends on the energy and, for low energy objects, on how high the lowest point in their trajectory is.
By energy, the objects can be classified into:
1) Objects with lower energy than the Earth's gravity well. In ideal conditions, these objects would orbit our planet forever in an elliptic trajectory. In reality, all of these will fall out of orbit because of friction (since there is no perfect vacuum). The time to fall out of orbit depends on the how far away from the Earth is the lowest point of their elliptic orbit. The closer their elliptic orbit gets to Earth, the quicker they will lose energy because of friction with the atmosphere.
2) Objects with high enough energy to escape Earth's gravity well. These head out into space.
"the existence of god is about as likely as the existence of the tooth fairy"
It depends on how you define "god". The likelihood of existence is different for:
1) An intelligent creator of our known universe. (Equivalent to our known universe being a simulated reality)
2) An intelligent creator of our known universe, attempting to communicate with us.
3) The intelligent creator as described by the various holy books, with all the details.
4) A being outside our known universe, replacing teeth children hide under pillows with money.
Yes, we've had and we still have widespread non-commercial sharing of software and music, but it was never legal.
By making non-commercial sharing legal, all content creators trying to sell their work will be in a competition with companies specialized in providing free and easy access to non-commercial content, which will now be 100% legal. I don't think the content creators will be able to do more than ask for donations.
The pirate party i s abit more extreme than that :
* Authorization of non-commercial sharing
* 5 years of commercial exclusivity
* +5 years if derivative non-commercial work is authorized
* +10 years if derivative commercial work is authorized (but you still want to get credit)
I am fine with this position.
What about works where almost all use is non-commercial?
For example, what should professional musicians do, only record advertisements?
Or computer games - I can't imagine a business model that would work for them if non-commercial sharing was allowed.
The power outage you experienced lasted less than 2 days. That's not enough to exhaust supplies in supermarkets.
The scenario presented in TFA talks about a power outage that would take months to be repaired. And would happen everywhere at the same time. It's a very different situation. For example, I wonder - is there enough equipment to transport drinking water for everybody?
As it happens, I enjoy driving fast ( I do own a small car, mostly for performance reason). It gives me pleasure to do so and I get to my destination sooner. I will gladly pick up the tab for the extra gas, which ought to include a carbon-tax that properly gauges the true cost to the environment. Why people insist on forbidding me from taking part in a simple pleasure on my own dime is entirely beyond me.
Because the extra pollution you make affects everybody else. I know the extra carbon _you_ are responsible for is an insignificant amount on a global scale, but if many people think like you, it becomes a problem. It's similar to the issue of smoking in public places, but on a global scale.
Considering where the world economy is currently headed, I wouldn't worry that much about outsourcing. China's economy is most likely going to rise relative to the US economy. So engineers in China will keep getting more expensive, and engineers in America will keep getting cheaper.
If you had a task that had serious text processing, surely you would use C++ over Haskell or Lisp. On the other hand, if you needed to do AI, you would use Forth instead of Pascal. Graphics means using a well supported library, so Perl/Tk is the better choice than Java/Swing.
Hint to slashdot mods: all the examples are reversed.
I don't recognize national borders. I'm trying to live my life without considering them. Perhaps this union guy from IBM should try to live his life the same way.
You're part of a lucky few. For most people in the world it is hard even to pay a short visit to the USA, because we need a visa that isn't easy to get.
I wonder why they don't make any mobile phones with chorded keyboards.
These would also be easy to use without looking at them, and it would also be easier to type using just the hand you're holding the phone in.
Slashdot Mirror
Socialism will up against the wall before capitalism because its workers will be more expensive and hence, obsoleted first.
Socialism is not about workers. According to the definition in Wikipedia: "Socialism is an economic system in which the means of production are commonly owned and controlled cooperatively; or a political philosophy advocating such a system.". Applied 19th century and early 20th century industrial society, this may have meant empowering the large masses of workers. Applying socialism to a world where robots do most jobs would just mean that everyone gets to share the robots and the results of their labor. People could fill their time educating themselves and doing philosophy, science and creating art.
Seriously, though - what's with the "getting dressed for the day was far too strenuous" tripe? I wear sweats or shorts when I work from home - so what? What's wrong with being comfortable?
Then it's not really work.
Actually, it depends on the energy and, for low energy objects, on how high the lowest point in their trajectory is.
By energy, the objects can be classified into:
1) Objects with lower energy than the Earth's gravity well. In ideal conditions, these objects would orbit our planet forever in an elliptic trajectory. In reality, all of these will fall out of orbit because of friction (since there is no perfect vacuum). The time to fall out of orbit depends on the how far away from the Earth is the lowest point of their elliptic orbit. The closer their elliptic orbit gets to Earth, the quicker they will lose energy because of friction with the atmosphere.
2) Objects with high enough energy to escape Earth's gravity well. These head out into space.
"the existence of god is about as likely as the existence of the tooth fairy"
It depends on how you define "god". The likelihood of existence is different for:
1) An intelligent creator of our known universe. (Equivalent to our known universe being a simulated reality)
2) An intelligent creator of our known universe, attempting to communicate with us.
3) The intelligent creator as described by the various holy books, with all the details.
4) A being outside our known universe, replacing teeth children hide under pillows with money.
Yes, we've had and we still have widespread non-commercial sharing of software and music, but it was never legal.
By making non-commercial sharing legal, all content creators trying to sell their work will be in a competition with companies specialized in providing free and easy access to non-commercial content, which will now be 100% legal. I don't think the content creators will be able to do more than ask for donations.
The pirate party i s abit more extreme than that : * Authorization of non-commercial sharing * 5 years of commercial exclusivity * +5 years if derivative non-commercial work is authorized * +10 years if derivative commercial work is authorized (but you still want to get credit) I am fine with this position.
What about works where almost all use is non-commercial?
For example, what should professional musicians do, only record advertisements?
Or computer games - I can't imagine a business model that would work for them if non-commercial sharing was allowed.
The power outage you experienced lasted less than 2 days. That's not enough to exhaust supplies in supermarkets.
The scenario presented in TFA talks about a power outage that would take months to be repaired. And would happen everywhere at the same time. It's a very different situation. For example, I wonder - is there enough equipment to transport drinking water for everybody?
As it happens, I enjoy driving fast ( I do own a small car, mostly for performance reason). It gives me pleasure to do so and I get to my destination sooner. I will gladly pick up the tab for the extra gas, which ought to include a carbon-tax that properly gauges the true cost to the environment. Why people insist on forbidding me from taking part in a simple pleasure on my own dime is entirely beyond me.
Because the extra pollution you make affects everybody else. I know the extra carbon _you_ are responsible for is an insignificant amount on a global scale, but if many people think like you, it becomes a problem. It's similar to the issue of smoking in public places, but on a global scale.
Considering where the world economy is currently headed, I wouldn't worry that much about outsourcing. China's economy is most likely going to rise relative to the US economy. So engineers in China will keep getting more expensive, and engineers in America will keep getting cheaper.
If you had a task that had serious text processing, surely you would use C++ over Haskell or Lisp. On the other hand, if you needed to do AI, you would use Forth instead of Pascal. Graphics means using a well supported library, so Perl/Tk is the better choice than Java/Swing.
Hint to slashdot mods: all the examples are reversed.
I don't recognize national borders. I'm trying to live my life without considering them. Perhaps this union guy from IBM should try to live his life the same way.
You're part of a lucky few. For most people in the world it is hard even to pay a short visit to the USA, because we need a visa that isn't easy to get.
I wonder why they don't make any mobile phones with chorded keyboards. These would also be easy to use without looking at them, and it would also be easier to type using just the hand you're holding the phone in.
and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun
Can we get a refund for a game if we play said without having said fun?
At least you'll only waste $1.25 trying a game that isn't fun, instead of the full price of the game (like you would in the current business model).