Let's use an obvious example, creation versus evolution. See the problem? If a creationist were to evaluate a scientific article talking about evolution, might he or she be tempted to mark it down as 'Not factual'? Certainly a biologist would mark creationist writings as 'Not factual.'
I think you just invalidated Carr's entire article with those few sentences. Regulating the internet would infact make people dumber in that they no longer are able to make their own decisions about things like creationism and evolution. The spoon feeding Carr seems to think is taking place on the internet would be amplified exponentially. Currently to verify anything consumed from the internet one must cross reference with other sources. The overall effect is to make people smarter than before as it makes them more critical of the ideas presented to them in general (which is a good thing).
1. The difference between quality in mp3s and in CDs is roughly equivalent to the difference in quality between recorded cassette tapes and tapes purchased from the band. (I think Lars' whole bootlegging argument is invalid)
2. No one mentions that *very* *very* few people will actually download an entire album in mp3. (theories: the entire CD sucks [not worth $15], it's a pain in the ass to download an entire album on a modem, most of the mp3s floating around are mp3s that are offered free *anyway* from places like mp3.com)
3. Very few people have the ability to play those mp3s anywhere but their computer (which likely has rather shitty sound anyway). Which means they are probably going to buy the CDs that they really want (car, home stereo). I know there are people who hoard hundreds of mp3s, but I also know that most people can't afford more than a few CDs each month. Basically this leads me to believe that the only usefulness of mp3s is as a sort of demoware. I personally own about 30 CDs. Whenever I have a party the only music we listen to is on those CDs. Three of the CDs (Bloodhound Gang, Ayub Ogada, the Ataris) I only bought *because* I heard some mp3s of their music. Before I did any buying I download as many mp3s from each artist(s) as I could, which allowed me to chose which album I wanted (which wasn't necessarily the album with the original song that caught my interest).
4. Someone is thinking, "yeah, but you can record mp3s onto CDs." True as that is, recording CDs is still an imperfect solution. It's not as good as buying CDs. The CDs I've created only work on about ½ of the CD players out there, they're this nasty green color, and they don't have the liner. This is still a problem for the RI though, and I don't know what else to say about it.
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Let's use an obvious example, creation versus evolution. See the problem? If a creationist were to evaluate a scientific article talking about evolution, might he or she be tempted to mark it down as 'Not factual'? Certainly a biologist would mark creationist writings as 'Not factual.'
I think you just invalidated Carr's entire article with those few sentences. Regulating the internet would infact make people dumber in that they no longer are able to make their own decisions about things like creationism and evolution. The spoon feeding Carr seems to think is taking place on the internet would be amplified exponentially. Currently to verify anything consumed from the internet one must cross reference with other sources. The overall effect is to make people smarter than before as it makes them more critical of the ideas presented to them in general (which is a good thing).
1. The difference between quality in mp3s and in CDs is roughly equivalent to the difference in quality between recorded cassette tapes and tapes purchased from the band. (I think Lars' whole bootlegging argument is invalid)
2. No one mentions that *very* *very* few people will actually download an entire album in mp3. (theories: the entire CD sucks [not worth $15], it's a pain in the ass to download an entire album on a modem, most of the mp3s floating around are mp3s that are offered free *anyway* from places like mp3.com)
3. Very few people have the ability to play those mp3s anywhere but their computer (which likely has rather shitty sound anyway). Which means they are probably going to buy the CDs that they really want (car, home stereo). I know there are people who hoard hundreds of mp3s, but I also know that most people can't afford more than a few CDs each month. Basically this leads me to believe that the only usefulness of mp3s is as a sort of demoware. I personally own about 30 CDs. Whenever I have a party the only music we listen to is on those CDs. Three of the CDs (Bloodhound Gang, Ayub Ogada, the Ataris) I only bought *because* I heard some mp3s of their music. Before I did any buying I download as many mp3s from each artist(s) as I could, which allowed me to chose which album I wanted (which wasn't necessarily the album with the original song that caught my interest).
4. Someone is thinking, "yeah, but you can record mp3s onto CDs." True as that is, recording CDs is still an imperfect solution. It's not as good as buying CDs. The CDs I've created only work on about ½ of the CD players out there, they're this nasty green color, and they don't have the liner. This is still a problem for the RI though, and I don't know what else to say about it.