There is a reason why the act of improving all that which you mention is not referred to as "studying" but "training". You know... The same as with animals.
As for brains... the fact that even the most mentally engaging "sports" like chess or go can be simulated relatively easily shows just how much mental acuity it takes for "sports". Bobby Fischer even invented Chess 960 because he found chess players increasingly relying on simply memorizing opening moves and combinations. You know... training a part of their brain to be a chess calculator instead of a THINKING fucking organ.
These... "athletes" are simply playing up on that one card they were born with, maxing out there chances by repetitive movements of their muscles, maxing out their testosterone and adrenaline (which make you dumb) and proper feeding regime. Replace "athletes" with "horses" and sentence will still be completely accurate and meaningful.
If we stuck your brain in a robot body capable of matching their physical abilities, you would still be too stupid (in that domain) to be better than merely good.
I accept that wager! You provide the robot body, the athletes I am to compete with, location, equipment and someone to instruct me in the nature of that particular sport 24 hours prior... ah fuck it... I'll be a robot... 1 hour prior to the game and I will show up to defeat them all entirely and completely so that they will all either commit suicide after the game or retire and become drunks and junkies. As a bonus, I'll be reciting Shakespeare and farting the national anthems of the world while doing all that defeating. Provided that the robot-body will be capable of farting, naturally.
1 - the fact that you are watching it and that the PROTAGONISTS are being paid outrageous sums of money makes that ENTERTAINMENT. Sports you do, play or compete in - you don't watch sports.
2 - "Near superhuman"? HAH! More like "special needs" idiot savants, generally leaning towards simply idiot. Most of them wouldn't be able to pass simple elementary-school tests. But they can sure as hell run after a ball. Well, so can dogs and horses - they at least have the excuse of being dumb animals.
Personally, I am insulted as a member of the human race each time someone points out one of those mental cripples as a paramount of human achievement. Like reading in the papers some time ago about how Rafael Nadal will be writing a biography. Except, it will actually be ghost-written. And the same text points out how he started playing tennis at 3 years old, after his uncle noticed that he has "natural talent for tennis".
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA WRITE ABOUT IN YOUR BIOGRAPHY!? YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING TENNIS EVERY DAY SINCE YOU COULD BARELY WALK, AND YOU'VE JUST STEPPED INTO YOUR 3RD DECADE OF THAT! "I've been hitting the ball the whole day. Tomorrow, I'll be hitting it some more. But the best comes on Sunday. I get to HIT the ball." Repeat for 300 pages or so.
And I should be impressed with "life and achievements" of a trained monkey just because PEPSI or someone like that decided to give him/her a huge sum of money to promote their sugar-water? FUCK THAT!
You want superhuman? Achievements, strength, courage and all? Try this guy.
Of course there is more than just spit-shine i.e. pretty designed box over someone else's tech. There is the huge marketing army and the all powerful distortion field. Microsoft might be the evil empire, but Apple is simply a crazy cult. Somewhere between Branch Davidian and Scientology. Actually, Dave and Steve might be twins, separated at birth. Or clones, maybe?
"Product exhibits better taste"? Seriously? Taste? Well, a long time ago someone said "De gustibus non est disputandum". Roughly translated it means "Tastes are like assholes. Everybody has one, and everybody finds the idea of tasting someone else's disgusting. Unless you are kinky."
Are Apple users THAT stupid? Maybe. Personally I find them to be more like mentally deranged. Also, frighteningly uninformed. As if they are living behind an iRon curtaiN. I mean... waiting so long for cut&paste (and other iNventions like camera and MMS) on the iPhone can be compared to waiting for that right-click.
What 20 year old product are you talking about? I guess you also consider MacOS a 26 year-old product too? And it doesn't even work on all computers... truly a piece of shit software, I'm sure you would agree. I'm using YOUR logic after all.
And hey... 10 years to get to Win7 is still better than 26. Or however long it will take Apple to move on from MacOS. When exactly will Apple release an actual new piece of software? Like... they are just sitting there holding their one-button mice since 1984, polishing the same old crud.
Microsoft: Here's the tech we have bought off and patented recently. We have a single working prototype in the lab and in about a year(ish), you will be able to buy a version with tacked on features you will have no use for, most of which won't even work as they should.
Apple: Here's the tech we have copied from someone else, tacked an 'i' in front of it and spit-shined it to appear cooler. You can PAY for it right now at the Apple Store, and we will get it to you when we damn well please.
Oh... and one more thing - it will cost anywhere between 2 and 5 times as the competition's model, but it will come in Apple's signature iWhite and maybe some other iColors. And it will cost half as much a month after it comes out. If you complain nicely, you will get a iGift-certificate for the fraction of the money difference that you can use to buy socks for your iPod.
This can't be the first time you hear a story of guy falling for "a beautiful young woman" who turned out to be a fat cow.
Although, this may be the first time I hear it being settled by drowning her and giving him a bath - usually it just ends with a divorce. And the guy takes a bath instead of being given one.
And burn the school down with that thingamajig they left on to draw electrocucity elves through the wires so they could HACK into school computers?
Are you insane!
Seriously now... You are overestimating technological knowledge and abilities of these kids as well as lenience of the school staff and rules. Probably their knowledge and abilities as well. They are DEMANDING that all students use a single platform and suffer additional costs, monetary or otherwise, in order to do that.
The guy is a anti-space exploration troll. Just the other day he was against Japanese sending robots to the Moon claiming that "there is nothing there" and how "Space Exploration is a 20th century American quasi-religion that is beginning to manifest itself as a mental disease among those people who believed it too strongly.". And he really likes to repeat that line.
My guess is that he was molested as a child by a close relative dressed as an astronaut and using a toy rocket.
With all due respect to your humble opinion - no. You know how caffeine-withdrawal headaches feel like your head is about to explode? That is because your brain is being torn apart from inside.
Caffeine blocks your adenosine. So, as your body needs its adenosine, it starts pumping up adenosine production. In couple of days you are full of adenosine, but since you are inhibiting it with all that caffeine you don't really feel it.
And then you forget to drink your coffee one morning. As your body has probably already metabolized most of that caffeine during the night, all that extra adenosine gets to work on all them receptors and as adenosine also controls your blood pressure by expanding your blood vessels - all of them there pretty little capillaries in your noggin expand. As an added bonus - all of your other blood vessels expand too. Now your blood pump can't get as much oxygen to where it's needed. Plus, now your serotonin goes down and you are depressed and easily irritable.
So, if you are going to quit coffee for a while - first lock up your gun(s) and mail the key to yourself. Using up a couple of vacation days for detox is also advisable.
After all - it is all just carbon atoms. The only problem is that the catalyst necessary for the reaction is rather expensive. There are also trademark and patent issues, so right now only it is only used on the Coca-Cola trademarked racing track.
Now... When we DO run out of oil, and if we DO find a natural source of cola that MIGHT bring the costs down enough for the whole thing to be economically viable. Also, by then, most patents on the Coca-Cola car should run out.
Even if it was made of "nothing", not going to the Moon is kind of like leaving one room in your apartment locked up and empty "because there is nothing there".
Exporting material to Earth in trade from the Moon is more problematic due to the cost of transportation which will vary greatly if the Moon is industrially developed (see above). One suggested candidate is Helium-3 from the solar wind, which has accumulated on the Moon's surface over billions of years, and which is rare on Earth. Helium is present in the lunar regolith in quantities of ten to a hundred (weight) parts per million, and 0.003 to 1 percent of this amount (depending on soil). 2006 market price for He-3 was about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value per unit weight of Gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.
In the long term future He-3 may prove to be a desirable fuel in thermonuclear fusion reactors.
$1.5 million per kilo sounds a bit pricey for a lot of "nothing".
Industrial complexes make things that other people need.
There are plenty of raw materials on the Moon valuable enough to be catapulted back to Earth. Not to mention how much easier it would be to launch satellites and orbital bases from the Moon into Earth's orbit than from the surface of the Earth. Heck, energy beaming satellites could become a reality pretty soon once you have the resources to build them on the Lunar surface.
Perhaps even just in time to coincide with that peak oil manifestation you mention.
Just because they are sending robots there NOW, doesn't mean that one day (relatively) soon they won't be sending humans up there too. Having robots build a base for robots is just a step in the process of robots building bases for humans. On the Moon and at other places.
Also, once Lunar construction permits start being handed out they will be in advantage over everyone else.
You are arguing that it is OK to steal software and break licenses but to download a movie is a crime? Or do you actually use one of those mythical licensed DVD players for Linux?
You also shouldn't be able to watch the streaming version on your Linux PC. Are you doing some more "law and license breaking" to achieve that?
Also similar services exist in other nations.
1 - we were talking about Netflix/Blockbuster. 2 - such services, WHERE THEY EXIST, usually have the movies artificially delayed by the movie industry. Also... IP-based crippling works for those too. 3 - ALL of those have the requirement of the user being a credit-card holding adult. While most people do get to be adults eventually, billions of people are not eligible for a credit-card.
Or have you actually intended to be more specific, but you got distracted by the light emanating from that shiny circle floating above your head?
Something like: "How difficult is it for a major credit card-holding adult citizen of United States, currently living in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia with an address and IP to prove it, who also happens to be a Windows/OSX user or an owner of one of proprietary set-top boxes or game consoles to get a Netflix / Blockbuster account and rent the damn thing?".
Seriously? You compare decades of natural growth and expansion of hardware and software technology to fashion industries 3-month cycle?
Or even if that's not the case, they just don't look as good as games designed for current hardware. So, except for the nostalga crowd, yes, Games have 'induced obsolescence' by virtue of the improvements in computing technology make older games just less appealing.
Hell, I recently purchased Monkey Island again because they re-vamped it with newer graphics and such. Sure, I could have still played the older version, but why not get the updated look that looks nicer on hardware that didn't exist when the original was released. But I am still playing the exact same game, with the exact same puzzles and story line.
Wow! I honestly think that you are actually REALLY not grasping how much you are contradicting yourself there. You do realize that the graphic representation of a game is not the actual "game"? I mean... I see you saying exactly that ("updated look that looks nicer...but I am still playing the exact same game"), but I have a feeling that you are not actually aware of that.
Many people have re-purchased music they already own on cassette tape on CD, or videos they already own on VHS on DVD, because the media makes them much more convenient an they don't need to keep old clunky players around.
And that has changed the songs or movies how exactly? How much funnier is "Life of Brian" on DVD than on a VHS? Disregarding the loudness wars, what exactly has changed about the music and songs The Beatles made all those years ago? Or Mozart?
Granted... Watching 3D movies in 2D ain't as much fun, but you gain almost nothing except the "gimmick value" if you "upgrade" say...
The point TFA is trying to make is, there is enough other impetus to spur on the industry without needing to lock down content like they have done. Even despite technology advances triggering a subset of people to re-buy stuff they already own, a lack of copyright protection would also stop authors of creative works being so lazy, and force them to be more ambitious or adventurous
1 - She makes a bad point based on a faulty premise. She compares food with music and movies for fuck's sake. 2 - Stop authors from being lazy? DUDE! Have you ever seen a Metallica concert? They may be assholes for all that shit with Napster but THEY ARE NOT LAZY. Nor is any artist out there that cares about his or her work. Also, to paraphrase James T. Kirk - an artist doesn't work on an assembly line basis, you can't simply say "Today I will create art". Have them churning it out every 3 months like the fashion industry does and see what you'll get. I have this suspicion that it be will something not unlike all those boy/girl-band pop songs.
Besides... Artists are not the problem. From Jonathan Coulton to Nine Inch Nails to Coldplay it has been shown again and again that they can both release their music to public for free AND make money out of it. Problem is the industry i.e. the media companies that keep pushing an archaic business model which they have fine-tuned to make money for themselves - not the artists. Sure, some of them are mediocre one-hit-wonders who would love perpetual copyright, but most of them are just along for the ride to the Copyright Land and the music industry executives are behind the wheel.
It is similar with writers. You can't really publish or market a bestseller by yourself. Movies... Well... Those don't belong to the people who make them - but to studios.
Maybe there is some other position to take besides suing everything that moves.
Sure there is.
But the "solution" provided in the lecture (Look how fashion industry has solved that problem.) is essentially flawed. It is based on induced and forced obsolescence/trend cycle that no IP industry could maintain.
If for no other reason then because you can't retrain the entire world every 3 months to use "Teh_N3w" software, or force musicians and singers to churn out hits every 3 months, or force actors and directors to complete a new blockbuster every 3 months, or force writers to publish bestsellers every 3 months, and most importantly - you can't force everyone to buy all that crap every 3 months.
On the other hand, you will need a new pair of shoes, pants, a shirt or two every couple of months - and you will buy what fits and what is available during the current season. And you can bet your ass that 99% of it will be "Teh_N3w".
Probably the only thing in your post that I MIGHT have any problem with is the actual length of the software patent. One, I don't believe that it should be very short - just shorter.:P Two, I don't believe that there should be any PATENTS on software - cause what exactly can a patent do for anyone that simple copyright can't do already?
Except maybe give you more leverage when you think that someone is using your code without your permission. I.e. Two lawsuits for the price of one.
Slashdot Mirror
HA!
There is a reason why the act of improving all that which you mention is not referred to as "studying" but "training".
You know... The same as with animals.
As for brains... the fact that even the most mentally engaging "sports" like chess or go can be simulated relatively easily shows just how much mental acuity it takes for "sports".
Bobby Fischer even invented Chess 960 because he found chess players increasingly relying on simply memorizing opening moves and combinations.
You know... training a part of their brain to be a chess calculator instead of a THINKING fucking organ.
These... "athletes" are simply playing up on that one card they were born with, maxing out there chances by repetitive movements of their muscles, maxing out their testosterone and adrenaline (which make you dumb) and proper feeding regime.
Replace "athletes" with "horses" and sentence will still be completely accurate and meaningful.
If we stuck your brain in a robot body capable of matching their physical abilities, you would still be too stupid (in that domain) to be better than merely good.
I accept that wager!
You provide the robot body, the athletes I am to compete with, location, equipment and someone to instruct me in the nature of that particular sport 24 hours prior... ah fuck it... I'll be a robot... 1 hour prior to the game and I will show up to defeat them all entirely and completely so that they will all either commit suicide after the game or retire and become drunks and junkies.
As a bonus, I'll be reciting Shakespeare and farting the national anthems of the world while doing all that defeating.
Provided that the robot-body will be capable of farting, naturally.
1 - the fact that you are watching it and that the PROTAGONISTS are being paid outrageous sums of money makes that ENTERTAINMENT.
Sports you do, play or compete in - you don't watch sports.
2 - "Near superhuman"? HAH! More like "special needs" idiot savants, generally leaning towards simply idiot.
Most of them wouldn't be able to pass simple elementary-school tests. But they can sure as hell run after a ball.
Well, so can dogs and horses - they at least have the excuse of being dumb animals.
Personally, I am insulted as a member of the human race each time someone points out one of those mental cripples as a paramount of human achievement.
Like reading in the papers some time ago about how Rafael Nadal will be writing a biography. Except, it will actually be ghost-written.
And the same text points out how he started playing tennis at 3 years old, after his uncle noticed that he has "natural talent for tennis".
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA WRITE ABOUT IN YOUR BIOGRAPHY!?
YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING TENNIS EVERY DAY SINCE YOU COULD BARELY WALK, AND YOU'VE JUST STEPPED INTO YOUR 3RD DECADE OF THAT!
"I've been hitting the ball the whole day. Tomorrow, I'll be hitting it some more. But the best comes on Sunday. I get to HIT the ball."
Repeat for 300 pages or so.
And I should be impressed with "life and achievements" of a trained monkey just because PEPSI or someone like that decided to give him/her a huge sum of money to promote their sugar-water?
FUCK THAT!
You want superhuman? Achievements, strength, courage and all?
Try this guy.
Of course there is more than just spit-shine i.e. pretty designed box over someone else's tech.
There is the huge marketing army and the all powerful distortion field.
Microsoft might be the evil empire, but Apple is simply a crazy cult. Somewhere between Branch Davidian and Scientology.
Actually, Dave and Steve might be twins, separated at birth.
Or clones, maybe?
"Product exhibits better taste"? Seriously? Taste?
Well, a long time ago someone said "De gustibus non est disputandum".
Roughly translated it means "Tastes are like assholes. Everybody has one, and everybody finds the idea of tasting someone else's disgusting. Unless you are kinky."
Are Apple users THAT stupid? Maybe. Personally I find them to be more like mentally deranged. Also, frighteningly uninformed. As if they are living behind an iRon curtaiN.
I mean... waiting so long for cut&paste (and other iNventions like camera and MMS) on the iPhone can be compared to waiting for that right-click.
What 20 year old product are you talking about?
I guess you also consider MacOS a 26 year-old product too?
And it doesn't even work on all computers... truly a piece of shit software, I'm sure you would agree.
I'm using YOUR logic after all.
And hey... 10 years to get to Win7 is still better than 26. Or however long it will take Apple to move on from MacOS.
When exactly will Apple release an actual new piece of software? Like... they are just sitting there holding their one-button mice since 1984, polishing the same old crud.
Microsoft: Here's the tech we have bought off and patented recently.
We have a single working prototype in the lab and in about a year(ish), you will be able to buy a version with tacked on features you will have no use for, most of which won't even work as they should.
Apple: Here's the tech we have copied from someone else, tacked an 'i' in front of it and spit-shined it to appear cooler.
You can PAY for it right now at the Apple Store, and we will get it to you when we damn well please.
Oh... and one more thing - it will cost anywhere between 2 and 5 times as the competition's model, but it will come in Apple's signature iWhite and maybe some other iColors.
And it will cost half as much a month after it comes out. If you complain nicely, you will get a iGift-certificate for the fraction of the money difference that you can use to buy socks for your iPod.
This can't be the first time you hear a story of guy falling for "a beautiful young woman" who turned out to be a fat cow.
Although, this may be the first time I hear it being settled by drowning her and giving him a bath - usually it just ends with a divorce.
And the guy takes a bath instead of being given one.
Hundreds of thousands of Grammar Nazis would beg to differ with your assumption.
And burn the school down with that thingamajig they left on to draw electrocucity elves through the wires so they could HACK into school computers?
Are you insane!
Seriously now...
You are overestimating technological knowledge and abilities of these kids as well as lenience of the school staff and rules. Probably their knowledge and abilities as well.
They are DEMANDING that all students use a single platform and suffer additional costs, monetary or otherwise, in order to do that.
THAT is how lenient AND pedagogical they are.
I'd vote to have Marilyn Monroe cloned.
And no one's figured out a good alternative to one of the two methods.
A good alternative was figured out long ago. Genetically engineered and cloned judges.
It's the only way to be sure.
He is a bit of a racist.
The guy is a anti-space exploration troll.
Just the other day he was against Japanese sending robots to the Moon claiming that "there is nothing there" and how "Space Exploration is a 20th century American quasi-religion that is beginning to manifest itself as a mental disease among those people who believed it too strongly.".
And he really likes to repeat that line.
My guess is that he was molested as a child by a close relative dressed as an astronaut and using a toy rocket.
With all due respect to your humble opinion - no.
You know how caffeine-withdrawal headaches feel like your head is about to explode? That is because your brain is being torn apart from inside.
Caffeine blocks your adenosine. So, as your body needs its adenosine, it starts pumping up adenosine production.
In couple of days you are full of adenosine, but since you are inhibiting it with all that caffeine you don't really feel it.
And then you forget to drink your coffee one morning.
As your body has probably already metabolized most of that caffeine during the night, all that extra adenosine gets to work on all them receptors and as adenosine also controls your blood pressure by expanding your blood vessels - all of them there pretty little capillaries in your noggin expand.
As an added bonus - all of your other blood vessels expand too. Now your blood pump can't get as much oxygen to where it's needed.
Plus, now your serotonin goes down and you are depressed and easily irritable.
So, if you are going to quit coffee for a while - first lock up your gun(s) and mail the key to yourself.
Using up a couple of vacation days for detox is also advisable.
After all - it is all just carbon atoms.
The only problem is that the catalyst necessary for the reaction is rather expensive.
There are also trademark and patent issues, so right now only it is only used on the Coca-Cola trademarked racing track.
Now... When we DO run out of oil, and if we DO find a natural source of cola that MIGHT bring the costs down enough for the whole thing to be economically viable.
Also, by then, most patents on the Coca-Cola car should run out.
When you send the unpopular guy to check for mines it's a win-win situation.
Not as much when you blow up the +$100k robot.
Even if it was made of "nothing", not going to the Moon is kind of like leaving one room in your apartment locked up and empty "because there is nothing there".
What, precisely, is that service? There is nothing on the moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon#Exporting_material_to_Earth
Exporting material to Earth in trade from the Moon is more problematic due to the cost of transportation which will vary greatly if the Moon is industrially developed (see above).
One suggested candidate is Helium-3 from the solar wind, which has accumulated on the Moon's surface over billions of years, and which is rare on Earth.
Helium is present in the lunar regolith in quantities of ten to a hundred (weight) parts per million, and 0.003 to 1 percent of this amount (depending on soil).
2006 market price for He-3 was about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value per unit weight of Gold and over eight times the value of Rhodium.
In the long term future He-3 may prove to be a desirable fuel in thermonuclear fusion reactors.
$1.5 million per kilo sounds a bit pricey for a lot of "nothing".
Industrial complexes make things that other people need.
There are plenty of raw materials on the Moon valuable enough to be catapulted back to Earth.
Not to mention how much easier it would be to launch satellites and orbital bases from the Moon into Earth's orbit than from the surface of the Earth.
Heck, energy beaming satellites could become a reality pretty soon once you have the resources to build them on the Lunar surface.
Perhaps even just in time to coincide with that peak oil manifestation you mention.
Just because they are sending robots there NOW, doesn't mean that one day (relatively) soon they won't be sending humans up there too.
Having robots build a base for robots is just a step in the process of robots building bases for humans.
On the Moon and at other places.
Also, once Lunar construction permits start being handed out they will be in advantage over everyone else.
You are arguing that it is OK to steal software and break licenses but to download a movie is a crime?
Or do you actually use one of those mythical licensed DVD players for Linux?
You also shouldn't be able to watch the streaming version on your Linux PC.
Are you doing some more "law and license breaking" to achieve that?
Also similar services exist in other nations.
1 - we were talking about Netflix/Blockbuster.
2 - such services, WHERE THEY EXIST, usually have the movies artificially delayed by the movie industry. Also... IP-based crippling works for those too.
3 - ALL of those have the requirement of the user being a credit-card holding adult. While most people do get to be adults eventually, billions of people are not eligible for a credit-card.
For the most of the world.
Or have you actually intended to be more specific, but you got distracted by the light emanating from that shiny circle floating above your head?
Something like:
"How difficult is it for a major credit card-holding adult citizen of United States, currently living in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia with an address and IP to prove it, who also happens to be a Windows/OSX user or an owner of one of proprietary set-top boxes or game consoles to get a Netflix / Blockbuster account and rent the damn thing?".
Do you still run DOS?
Seriously? You compare decades of natural growth and expansion of hardware and software technology to fashion industries 3-month cycle?
Wow! I honestly think that you are actually REALLY not grasping how much you are contradicting yourself there.
You do realize that the graphic representation of a game is not the actual "game"?
I mean... I see you saying exactly that ("updated look that looks nicer...but I am still playing the exact same game"), but I have a feeling that you are not actually aware of that.
Many people have re-purchased music they already own on cassette tape on CD, or videos they already own on VHS on DVD, because the media makes them much more convenient an they don't need to keep old clunky players around.
And that has changed the songs or movies how exactly?
How much funnier is "Life of Brian" on DVD than on a VHS? Disregarding the loudness wars, what exactly has changed about the music and songs The Beatles made all those years ago? Or Mozart?
Granted... Watching 3D movies in 2D ain't as much fun, but you gain almost nothing except the "gimmick value" if you "upgrade" say...
The point TFA is trying to make is, there is enough other impetus to spur on the industry without needing to lock down content like they have done. Even despite technology advances triggering a subset of people to re-buy stuff they already own, a lack of copyright protection would also stop authors of creative works being so lazy, and force them to be more ambitious or adventurous
1 - She makes a bad point based on a faulty premise. She compares food with music and movies for fuck's sake.
2 - Stop authors from being lazy? DUDE!
Have you ever seen a Metallica concert? They may be assholes for all that shit with Napster but THEY ARE NOT LAZY.
Nor is any artist out there that cares about his or her work.
Also, to paraphrase James T. Kirk - an artist doesn't work on an assembly line basis, you can't simply say "Today I will create art".
Have them churning it out every 3 months like the fashion industry does and see what you'll get.
I have this suspicion that it be will something not unlike all those boy/girl-band pop songs.
Besides... Artists are not the problem.
From Jonathan Coulton to Nine Inch Nails to Coldplay it has been shown again and again that they can both release their music to public for free AND make money out of it.
Problem is the industry i.e. the media companies that keep pushing an archaic business model which they have fine-tuned to make money for themselves - not the artists.
Sure, some of them are mediocre one-hit-wonders who would love perpetual copyright, but most of them are just along for the ride to the Copyright Land and the music industry executives are behind the wheel.
It is similar with writers. You can't really publish or market a bestseller by yourself.
Movies... Well... Those don't belong to the people who make them - but to studios.
Maybe there is some other position to take besides suing everything that moves.
Sure there is.
But the "solution" provided in the lecture (Look how fashion industry has solved that problem.) is essentially flawed.
It is based on induced and forced obsolescence/trend cycle that no IP industry could maintain.
If for no other reason then because you can't retrain the entire world every 3 months to use "Teh_N3w" software, or force musicians and singers to churn out hits every 3 months, or force actors and directors to complete a new blockbuster every 3 months, or force writers to publish bestsellers every 3 months, and most importantly - you can't force everyone to buy all that crap every 3 months.
On the other hand, you will need a new pair of shoes, pants, a shirt or two every couple of months - and you will buy what fits and what is available during the current season.
And you can bet your ass that 99% of it will be "Teh_N3w".
I mean that should you destroy the original Mona Lisa painting, the painting of Mona Lisa will not cease to exist.
Remove the PRADA logo from a pair of PRADA shoes, and they become just a pair of shoes.
I very much agree with everything you have said.
Probably the only thing in your post that I MIGHT have any problem with is the actual length of the software patent. :P
One, I don't believe that it should be very short - just shorter.
Two, I don't believe that there should be any PATENTS on software - cause what exactly can a patent do for anyone that simple copyright can't do already?
Except maybe give you more leverage when you think that someone is using your code without your permission.
I.e. Two lawsuits for the price of one.