John Stuart Mill believed, in the 1800's, that the world was running out of new music. There are only 12 notes in our scale, and every pleasant combination would soon be used up. Mind you, this was before a note of Jazz, Bluegrass, Rock, Rap, or Techno had ever been played.
Paul Ehrlich thought in the 1970s that Earth's environment would be used up by the end of the 1980s. Guess what? People have continued to create better, cleaner methods of production.
"The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination." - Julian Simon
"The increase in the world's population represents our victory against death..." - Julian Simon.
There was a guy in the '70s named Paul Ehrlich who became quite popular making these sames claims: the Earth would be destroyed by pollution and overconsumption before the next century. Ehrlich relied on the same Malthusian theory: that a population growing at a geometric rate would outstrip its resources growing at an arithmetic rate. The thing Ehrlich (and Malthus) didn't consider was human ingenuity. Ehrlich thought we'd all be starved by now; instead we're all too fat for our own good. Sure environmental problems can be devastating and tricky to solve, but the sky is not falling. Humanity enjoys better material conditions now than ever before.
The best resource for countering doomsayers is the writings of Julian Simon. People who get a perverse pleasure from proclaiming doom hate him. A good introduction to "doomslaying" is Wired Magazine's interview with Julian Simon.
There's no excuse for being bamboozled by the mainstream media in 2002. Who cares if CNN focuses on sensationalistic stories? There are a million other choices to get your news from. If you don't like media companies with corporate sponsors, read independent news websites instead. If you like boring news that doesn't cater to the clamjamfry, listen to NPR.
Reason Magazine has a good editorial on media mergers: http://reason.com/0004/ed.ng.mergers.sht ml
"...once companies have a gun to their head, they'll figure out a way to improve their code."
Do programmers in totalitarian states produce better code? Government regulation doesn't ensure quality - in fact, it can give consumers a false sense of confidence.
If quality were more important than new features and pizzaz to consumers, then software companies would cater to that need. The truth is that consumers don't need, and wouldn't pay for, NASA quality code for personal computers.
It's the same things with DVDs. You've got these people complaining here that they've had to pay twice for a DVD they've already bought on VHS. But, I don't think movie companies would be able to put all the budget that they do into director's cuts, well-edited behind the scenes footage, digital remastering and such into DVD re-releases, if it weren't for people paying "twice." I suppose in 2010 these same whiners will want the immersive holographic sensory-simulation-enabled rereleases of movies they bought on DVD for free too.
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John Stuart Mill believed, in the 1800's, that the world was running out of new music. There are only 12 notes in our scale, and every pleasant combination would soon be used up. Mind you, this was before a note of Jazz, Bluegrass, Rock, Rap, or Techno had ever been played.
Paul Ehrlich thought in the 1970s that Earth's environment would be used up by the end of the 1980s. Guess what? People have continued to create better, cleaner methods of production.
"The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination." - Julian Simon
"The increase in the world's
population represents our victory against death..." - Julian Simon.
There was a guy in the '70s named Paul Ehrlich who became quite popular making these sames claims: the Earth would be destroyed by pollution and overconsumption before the next century. Ehrlich relied on the same Malthusian theory: that a population growing at a geometric rate would outstrip its resources growing at an arithmetic rate. The thing Ehrlich (and Malthus) didn't consider was human ingenuity. Ehrlich thought we'd all be starved by now; instead we're all too fat for our own good. Sure environmental problems can be devastating and tricky to solve, but the sky is not falling. Humanity enjoys better material conditions now than ever before.
The best resource for countering doomsayers is the writings of Julian Simon. People who get a perverse pleasure from proclaiming doom hate him. A good introduction to "doomslaying" is Wired Magazine's interview with Julian Simon.
There's no excuse for being bamboozled by the mainstream media in 2002. Who cares if CNN focuses on sensationalistic stories? There are a million other choices to get your news from. If you don't like media companies with corporate sponsors, read independent news websites instead. If you like boring news that doesn't cater to the clamjamfry, listen to NPR.
t ml
Reason Magazine has a good editorial on media mergers:
http://reason.com/0004/ed.ng.mergers.sh
"...once companies have a gun to their head, they'll figure out a way to improve their code."
Do programmers in totalitarian states produce better code? Government regulation doesn't ensure quality - in fact, it can give consumers a false sense of confidence.
If quality were more important than new features and pizzaz to consumers, then software companies would cater to that need. The truth is that consumers don't need, and wouldn't pay for, NASA quality code for personal computers.
It's the same things with DVDs. You've got these people complaining here that they've had to pay twice for a DVD they've already bought on VHS. But, I don't think movie companies would be able to put all the budget that they do into director's cuts, well-edited behind the scenes footage, digital remastering and such into DVD re-releases, if it weren't for people paying "twice." I suppose in 2010 these same whiners will want the immersive holographic sensory-simulation-enabled rereleases of movies they bought on DVD for free too.