We probably are close in ideology. But consider this, if RMS was any less of a clever zealot, would the Novell project have failed like it should have? Would Microsoft be playing nice now? Would Linux exist as it does? Would people even have a free c compiler? Do you really want to roll those dice? With the Snowden revelations, and ever new threats to our freedom emerging every day as tech changes, don't we need some unwielding force for libre, so that the middle we end up in is somewhat tolerable, like it is now? I personally use all sorts of proprietary code, and I write proprietary code, but I am glad RMS is doing exactly what he is doing, so that overall I live in a (somewhat) free world of technology. Ugh, imagine if GNU/Linux didn't exist, and all we had were IIS servers! As for Microsoft, remember that the.NET project was originally just another one of their "Embrace/Extend/Extinguishi" shticks. Now it can actually so some good because it will simply never be dominant.
Your comment shows the basic confusion people like you suffer from, and RMS has a one-liner that encapsulates it perfectly: "The freedom to remove another person's freedom is not a freedom at all, it's tyranny." If your software project's "success" means the loss of freedom for a lot of people, then your project should fail. It's basic ethics and morals. Comcast would post amazing returns to its investors if everyone was forced to use them for broadband... why shouldn't we let them have a monopoly?
Icaza is an interesting person. I loathed him during the Novell days. He was doing evil in my view. Now, at Xamarin, I think he is doing immense good. But, he is only doing that good because he was stopped from doing any more evil. Sometimes brilliant people need to be contained and redirected. Icaza is a prime example.
lol, I had you pegged. Anyone who likes someone you don't like is a "religious zealot". Face it, you just resent RMS, and Obama, who are in your face about being good people and doing good things, and you can't do anything about it. You're the very picture of abject impotence..
Funny how when its RMS, it's "religion" and "god worship" but when it's Einstein or Newton it's just appreciating the immense contributions made by a gifted intelligent individual. I hear the same thing with anti-Obama nutbags, calling anyone who has admiration for him a stupid "worshiper" who "drank the Koolaid". Ah, the convenience of self-justifying logic. How nice that must be for you.
I agree, for me it stands for RMS Decidedly Successful. He's on the level of Alan Turing. Turing was driven to kill himself by people against who he was back then. Same thing for some people now with RMS. His philosophy of freedom as in libre will be common sense in 100 years, and people like you will be looked back on in shame.
I think it's wrong to apply the simplistic Occam's Razor to a sentience more advanced than ours. People 10,000 years ago would view us as Gods, meaning seeing us as able to do the impossible seemingly effortlessly, or as I said, able to make their will reality.
The other thing to remember is that whether or not you "buy it" doesn't actually influence reality. I think that whole premise is based upon the idea that your will affects reality, which is what I was talking about in the first place. So we really aren't in disagreement philosophically, you just think your will must be superior.
The only reason we haven't found or met any alien civilizations is that they are simply unwilling for that to happen yet. We're not the nicest of species and civilizations, just read through a slashdot thread.
To explain a bit, I would say that the measure of a species' advancement through the level of their technology is secondary to the real measure, which is how extensively and how easily can a species turn its will into reality.
Based on that definition, then its pretty straightforward then that if aliens are unwilling to let us know about them, then for them it would be extremely easy and simple -- just decide, whereas for us the idea seems impossibly complex, unlikely, and difficult, and therefore hard to accept.
They must've had at least a few thousand years on us, if not millions. Imagine where we will be in 1000 years. It's beyond conjecture. This should make it easier to accept our inability to know how an alien species could just decide to not let us know about them, and have it so, despite any of our efforts to the contrary.
How many hookers Comcast has provided to various people with influence on this issue. 100? 1000? If congressional aide sees the same hooker twice, we count that as two. Similarly if one hooker sees two different state lawmakers, we count that as twice as well.
This puts the innocence of the 1950's in proper perspective, huh? Leave It To Beaver seemed false because, well, it was. McCarthyism, Hoover, the Cold War, all these things were going on full bore while American families ate their new-fangled TV dinners, with a false sense of security and reality. It's amazing we made it out of those dark times, that we all look back on as so idyllic.
Slashdot Mirror
We probably are close in ideology. But consider this, if RMS was any less of a clever zealot, would the Novell project have failed like it should have? Would Microsoft be playing nice now? Would Linux exist as it does? Would people even have a free c compiler? Do you really want to roll those dice? With the Snowden revelations, and ever new threats to our freedom emerging every day as tech changes, don't we need some unwielding force for libre, so that the middle we end up in is somewhat tolerable, like it is now? I personally use all sorts of proprietary code, and I write proprietary code, but I am glad RMS is doing exactly what he is doing, so that overall I live in a (somewhat) free world of technology. Ugh, imagine if GNU/Linux didn't exist, and all we had were IIS servers! As for Microsoft, remember that the .NET project was originally just another one of their "Embrace/Extend/Extinguishi" shticks. Now it can actually so some good because it will simply never be dominant.
Your comment shows the basic confusion people like you suffer from, and RMS has a one-liner that encapsulates it perfectly: "The freedom to remove another person's freedom is not a freedom at all, it's tyranny." If your software project's "success" means the loss of freedom for a lot of people, then your project should fail. It's basic ethics and morals. Comcast would post amazing returns to its investors if everyone was forced to use them for broadband... why shouldn't we let them have a monopoly?
Icaza is an interesting person. I loathed him during the Novell days. He was doing evil in my view. Now, at Xamarin, I think he is doing immense good. But, he is only doing that good because he was stopped from doing any more evil. Sometimes brilliant people need to be contained and redirected. Icaza is a prime example.
lol, I had you pegged. Anyone who likes someone you don't like is a "religious zealot". Face it, you just resent RMS, and Obama, who are in your face about being good people and doing good things, and you can't do anything about it. You're the very picture of abject impotence..
Funny how when its RMS, it's "religion" and "god worship" but when it's Einstein or Newton it's just appreciating the immense contributions made by a gifted intelligent individual. I hear the same thing with anti-Obama nutbags, calling anyone who has admiration for him a stupid "worshiper" who "drank the Koolaid". Ah, the convenience of self-justifying logic. How nice that must be for you.
I agree, for me it stands for RMS Decidedly Successful. He's on the level of Alan Turing. Turing was driven to kill himself by people against who he was back then. Same thing for some people now with RMS. His philosophy of freedom as in libre will be common sense in 100 years, and people like you will be looked back on in shame.
One of the best science texts ever. So far ahead of its time... http://books.google.com/books/...
I think it's wrong to apply the simplistic Occam's Razor to a sentience more advanced than ours. People 10,000 years ago would view us as Gods, meaning seeing us as able to do the impossible seemingly effortlessly, or as I said, able to make their will reality.
The other thing to remember is that whether or not you "buy it" doesn't actually influence reality. I think that whole premise is based upon the idea that your will affects reality, which is what I was talking about in the first place. So we really aren't in disagreement philosophically, you just think your will must be superior.
The only reason we haven't found or met any alien civilizations is that they are simply unwilling for that to happen yet. We're not the nicest of species and civilizations, just read through a slashdot thread.
To explain a bit, I would say that the measure of a species' advancement through the level of their technology is secondary to the real measure, which is how extensively and how easily can a species turn its will into reality.
Based on that definition, then its pretty straightforward then that if aliens are unwilling to let us know about them, then for them it would be extremely easy and simple -- just decide, whereas for us the idea seems impossibly complex, unlikely, and difficult, and therefore hard to accept.
They must've had at least a few thousand years on us, if not millions. Imagine where we will be in 1000 years. It's beyond conjecture. This should make it easier to accept our inability to know how an alien species could just decide to not let us know about them, and have it so, despite any of our efforts to the contrary.
How many hookers Comcast has provided to various people with influence on this issue. 100? 1000? If congressional aide sees the same hooker twice, we count that as two. Similarly if one hooker sees two different state lawmakers, we count that as twice as well.
This puts the innocence of the 1950's in proper perspective, huh? Leave It To Beaver seemed false because, well, it was. McCarthyism, Hoover, the Cold War, all these things were going on full bore while American families ate their new-fangled TV dinners, with a false sense of security and reality. It's amazing we made it out of those dark times, that we all look back on as so idyllic.