> That said, what exactly is so bad about domain > speculators? It seems to me that they provide a > useful service, just like ticket scalpers. And > just to be clear, I'm not talking about the > scammers who used to register and re-register > domains without ever paying for them.
I think I understand your sentiment here but I have to disagree. Speculation (or, in this context, scalping) may or may not "help to efficiently distribute underpriced goods", but it strikes me as a foul practice, as it artificially reduces supply for the general public, and forces a cost on the producer of the good (in the form of disgruntlement at and dissatisfaction with the producer by the consumer for a practice the producer isn't even involved with!) Let me give an example:
- When The Phantom Menace was released, many thousands of us stood in line for hours/days/eons to obtain tickets. Those who got up earliest tended to get the tickets, the point being that the seller of the product (the movie theater) established their price, and sold tickets first-come/first-served until they were gone. This is a situation where every person in the public has an initially equal footing, and is treated equally by the movie theater (see: my money is green, sell me the ticket).
Now enter the scalper. This guy smells a profit from forty paces, and knows exactly when to get to that theater in order to snag up as many tickets as possible (see: O'Dark Early three weeks before they go on sale) So, his money being as green as the rest of ours, he proceeds to buy 10/20/however many tickets the theater limits him to in order to discourage this practice in the first place. What he's doing here, I'm sure, is perfectly capitalistic (read: sacred in the eyes of some here), but what strikes me is that (again) the little guy loses an opportunity, sacrificed to the altar of profit.
In theory, I'm sure many of us here would say "shut the f**k up, the scalper has the right to do what he wants with his money." Well, I can hardly argue with that. But in practice, given that all of our respective monies are, in fact, as green as the others', imagine being that last guy in line, told "sorry, no more tickets" You've been in line for hours, nay millenia, only to be turned away at the gates, when suddenly you hear "OK, who wants tickets, I got tickets, only (insert some exponentially-larger-than-theater's-price here)" Now, your green ISN'T as green as everyone else's, it just turned a few shades pink (this whole scene is simply the world on a much tinier scale, neh?). Ultimately, the only winner in this scenario is the scalper, who walks away with at least what he bought the tickets with (meaning he loses nothing), while those who stood in line have been shafted (kicked out of the priority scheduler), and the theater blasted for not having "better anti-scalping procedures in place".
To attack from a different angle, I used to collect Star Wars figures (another heinous hobby in itself... don't get me started), and I used to run down to Toys 'R' Us like every other mofo in town to try to get the toys I wanted. Without fail, some f**king scalper had gotten there earlier/been tipped off by his cronies on the inside/materialized from thin air and bought up all 12 cases (yes, CASES) of figures that comprised that week's shipment. Again, artificially reducing the supply for his own profit, shafting the rest of us. Now imagine it's Christmas, and you'd like to purchase one of the greater-than-100000 figures Satan...err.. I mean Kenner produced. You traipse down to the store, and LO AND BEHOLD, no figures on the shelf. Oh wait, there's another shelf... NO, EVERY FIGURE IS UGLY PRINCESS LEIA! (composes himself). Truly, a frustrating situation.
There's obviously no law against scalping, and I hope there never is (I'd like not to walk down that legal road). However, I still believe it is a shitty practice. Moderate me as you will, and sorry about the long post!
I have mixed feelings about this whole subject. On the one hand, I don't like seeing species dying out due to human actions... ecological accidents (oil spills, etc), greed (whale hunting, over-fishing, wholesale deforestation, etc), or what have you, and I think that cloning has a chance of at least repairing some of the damage that we cause, intentionally or through ignorance.
On the other hand, this whole cloning business, for some reason, makes me wary that this is just another mechanism for humans to avoid taking the responsibility for their actions. I think that (in America at least... can't speak for other countries), we already are impressing upon our children that it's OK to foul up almost anything and continue on as if almost nothing had happened. Shoot someone... well, you'll get out in 3-5 (unless you're rich, in which case you'll be home by dinner). Screw up your life on drugs... well, just go into rehab (and/or onto the cover of Time). Watch too much TV and forget how to think... well, everyone else is doing it too (Must-See TV my ass!). Destroy a bunch of birds or elephants or what have you... well, just clone up a new batch (and be their custodian, no doubt!)
I think that humans have a tendency to over-control their environment as it is, for the sake of aesthetics, or profit, or just plain stupidity. Sure, I enjoy the conveniences and gizmos of modern life, and a certain amount of reality-manipulation is necessary in order to bring these about. Likewise, I can think of several uses for cloning (replacing destroyed limbs, engineering less-perishable/healthier food, blah blah blah), so I don't have a problem with cloning per se. However, cloning exerts the ultimate control over life itself, and can compensate for, nay, negate reckless behavior, simply by re-creating what existed and was destroyed. Reckless behavior shouldn't be coddled, and I think that cloning can be another mechanism to do just that.
If you want to approach this from an ethical slant, how are future generations supposed to understand what is "right" and "wrong" if there are no lasting consequences of their actions? I mean, (and I hope it NEVER gets this bad) I can envision a time when, cloning being employed fully, a man is murdered by another man, and the murdered man is simply re-cloned into existence. There is no indelible mark on history, no permanence to an action... just hit "Undo" a few times, and it's all better, Johnny. Substitute "species" for "man", and I think where I'm going is apparent. Further (and this is going WAAY out on a limb), suppose that there is some sort of karmic balance to the universe. Is cloning now a tool with which undermine that? Are we, in effect, actually BECOMING the gods that we worship, or disdain, or deny?
Obviously, I have no idea where we are going with cloning, but I think that before we rush off and do something because we can, we might want to take the time to consider whether we should (thanks, Michael Crichton!:^))
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> That said, what exactly is so bad about domain
> speculators? It seems to me that they provide a
> useful service, just like ticket scalpers. And
> just to be clear, I'm not talking about the
> scammers who used to register and re-register
> domains without ever paying for them.
I think I understand your sentiment here but I have to disagree. Speculation (or, in this context, scalping) may or may not "help to efficiently distribute underpriced goods", but it strikes me as a foul practice, as it artificially reduces supply for the general public, and forces a cost on the producer of the good (in the form of disgruntlement at and dissatisfaction with the producer by the consumer for a practice the producer isn't even involved with!) Let me give an example:
- When The Phantom Menace was released, many thousands of us stood in line for hours/days/eons to obtain tickets. Those who got up earliest tended to get the tickets, the point being that the seller of the product (the movie theater) established their price, and sold tickets first-come/first-served until they were gone. This is a situation where every person in the public has an initially equal footing, and is treated equally by the movie theater (see: my money is green, sell me the ticket).
Now enter the scalper. This guy smells a profit from forty paces, and knows exactly when to get to that theater in order to snag up as many tickets as possible (see: O'Dark Early three weeks before they go on sale) So, his money being as green as the rest of ours, he proceeds to buy 10/20/however many tickets the theater limits him to in order to discourage this practice in the first place. What he's doing here, I'm sure, is perfectly capitalistic (read: sacred in the eyes of some here), but what strikes me is that (again) the little guy loses an opportunity, sacrificed to the altar of profit.
In theory, I'm sure many of us here would say "shut the f**k up, the scalper has the right to do what he wants with his money." Well, I can hardly argue with that. But in practice, given that all of our respective monies are, in fact, as green as the others', imagine being that last guy in line, told "sorry, no more tickets" You've been in line for hours, nay millenia, only to be turned away at the gates, when suddenly you hear "OK, who wants tickets, I got tickets, only (insert some exponentially-larger-than-theater's-price here)" Now, your green ISN'T as green as everyone else's, it just turned a few shades pink (this whole scene is simply the world on a much tinier scale, neh?). Ultimately, the only winner in this scenario is the scalper, who walks away with at least what he bought the tickets with (meaning he loses nothing), while those who stood in line have been shafted (kicked out of the priority scheduler), and the theater blasted for not having "better anti-scalping procedures in place".
To attack from a different angle, I used to collect Star Wars figures (another heinous hobby in itself... don't get me started), and I used to run down to Toys 'R' Us like every other mofo in town to try to get the toys I wanted. Without fail, some f**king scalper had gotten there earlier/been tipped off by his cronies on the inside/materialized from thin air and bought up all 12 cases (yes, CASES) of figures that comprised that week's shipment. Again, artificially reducing the supply for his own profit, shafting the rest of us. Now imagine it's Christmas, and you'd like to purchase one of the greater-than-100000 figures Satan...err.. I mean Kenner produced. You traipse down to the store, and LO AND BEHOLD, no figures on the shelf. Oh wait, there's another shelf... NO, EVERY FIGURE IS UGLY PRINCESS LEIA! (composes himself). Truly, a frustrating situation.
There's obviously no law against scalping, and I hope there never is (I'd like not to walk down that legal road). However, I still believe it is a shitty practice. Moderate me as you will, and sorry about the long post!
Thanks,
NULLphoenix
I have mixed feelings about this whole subject. On the one hand, I don't like seeing species dying out due to human actions... ecological accidents (oil spills, etc), greed (whale hunting, over-fishing, wholesale deforestation, etc), or what have you, and I think that cloning has a chance of at least repairing some of the damage that we cause, intentionally or through ignorance.
:^))
On the other hand, this whole cloning business, for some reason, makes me wary that this is just another mechanism for humans to avoid taking the responsibility for their actions. I think that (in America at least... can't speak for other countries), we already are impressing upon our children that it's OK to foul up almost anything and continue on as if almost nothing had happened. Shoot someone... well, you'll get out in 3-5 (unless you're rich, in which case you'll be home by dinner). Screw up your life on drugs... well, just go into rehab (and/or onto the cover of Time). Watch too much TV and forget how to think... well, everyone else is doing it too (Must-See TV my ass!). Destroy a bunch of birds or elephants or what have you... well, just clone up a new batch (and be their custodian, no doubt!)
I think that humans have a tendency to over-control their environment as it is, for the sake of aesthetics, or profit, or just plain stupidity. Sure, I enjoy the conveniences and gizmos of modern life, and a certain amount of reality-manipulation is necessary in order to bring these about. Likewise, I can think of several uses for cloning (replacing destroyed limbs, engineering less-perishable/healthier food, blah blah blah), so I don't have a problem with cloning per se. However, cloning exerts the ultimate control over life itself, and can compensate for, nay, negate reckless behavior, simply by re-creating what existed and was destroyed. Reckless behavior shouldn't be coddled, and I think that cloning can be another mechanism to do just that.
If you want to approach this from an ethical slant, how are future generations supposed to understand what is "right" and "wrong" if there are no lasting consequences of their actions? I mean, (and I hope it NEVER gets this bad) I can envision a time when, cloning being employed fully, a man is murdered by another man, and the murdered man is simply re-cloned into existence. There is no indelible mark on history, no permanence to an action... just hit "Undo" a few times, and it's all better, Johnny. Substitute "species" for "man", and I think where I'm going is apparent. Further (and this is going WAAY out on a limb), suppose that there is some sort of karmic balance to the universe. Is cloning now a tool with which undermine that? Are we, in effect, actually BECOMING the gods that we worship, or disdain, or deny?
Obviously, I have no idea where we are going with cloning, but I think that before we rush off and do something because we can, we might want to take the time to consider whether we should (thanks, Michael Crichton!
Just random musings, don't mind me..
Thanks for your time,
NULLphoenix