Sure, we say it all the time, "Corporations are running the country," meaning that corporations have undue influence over lawmakers; but it's getting to the point that we're going to have to find a stronger statement, like "Corporations are completely and utterly in charge of every aspect of our daily lives, using the government and their nearly exclusive control of all media content to keep it that way."
Social evolution in action: corporations are more efficient -- better adapted to their environment -- than nation-states.
Nation-states, in their day, were more efficient than kingdoms; which were more efficient than city-states; which were more efficient than tribes; which were more efficient than individuals.
I don't like it, but I accept that it's nature's way: the strong flourish, the weak fail.
Mein Gott, what can we do?
About corporate power? We can do nothing.
Live your life well, try to bring more love than hate into the world. That's all. No big stuff -- no Revolution, no Topple the State, no Stop the Corporations. Work to your scale, as an individual; the rest is History.
"You know, fascists used mobs. You can fool some of the people some of the time, and all you need to do is fool them at the right time and get them out to act on that. So I wouldn't confuse the democratization of the Internet with necessarily healthy activity for democracy. That would be projecting magical thinking onto the technology."
punch-card lovers association held its annual conference and proclaimed punch-cards superior to all modern IDEs, compilers, editors and debuggers.
Punch cards are all good and fine.
But if you want real power in a computing machine, what you need is something like Stonehenge, which has the advantage of... umm, no hardware failure, and zero down-time (if the sun is shining).
And if I were the person who suggested I read "The Difference Engine" to introduce me to Sterling, I'd feel pretty dumb for suggesting this book. It would have been my very own suggestion which made me waste my time reading half of a novel.
Of course, "Difference Engine" was a collaboration with William Gibson.
That said -- I didn't like Difference Engine a hell of a lot. (Only the last third, really -- each third is a separate story -- the first was boring, the second okay, the third rocked.)
For a better collaboration w/ Gibson, read "Red Star, Winter Orbit" -- outstanding short story -- more notes in my other post.
Arrgh, Jim boy -- ye mean Sterling silver, don't ye...?
-kgj
Sterling: Gift for Character Development
on
The Zenith Angle
·
· Score: 1
I'm hoping the characters are a bit more developed instead of the stereotypical caste that they seem to come from in this guys' and everyone else's 'technothrillers'
Sterling delivers the goods -- the man knows how to create characters. A label like "techno-thriller" doesn't mean a thing -- all I know is that Sterling has got the right stuff, time and again.
Note that Harlan Ellison raved about Sterling's first novel ("Involution Ocean"). I'm not saying Harlan Ellison is always right, but man, it's damned rare that he raves about anything -- usually he savages anyone and everything.
Globalhead -- uneven but with gems
on
The Zenith Angle
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Globalhead is uneven, but the good stuff ("Our Neural Chernobyl", "The Shores of Bohemia") is really, really good.
Agreed -- not all of the Globalhead stories make the grade -- but don't miss "We See Things Differently" -- my God, that's a great story!
Sterling has an amazing gift for writing political fiction -- he writes American characters, Arab characters, Russian characters... and man, you are there, you become an American, an Arab, a Russian.
Also not to be missed: "Red Star, Winter Orbit" -- short story, collaboration with William Gibson, appears in Gibson's "Burning Chrome" collection.
Blame the [Japanese militarist] idiots that started the war to begin with so they could conquer Asia.
I agree with you. But I want to add that the Japanese had done quite a bit of conquering in Asia (Manchuria, Nanjing, etc.) prior to attacking America.
I recently read The Yamato Dynasty by Peggy and Sterling Seagraves -- very informative about Japanese internal political struggles.
Remember, no one thought that al Queda had cruise missile capability before 9/11.
Not strictly true. The basic idea of crashing airplaines into American skyscrapers had been around for at least twenty years -- Dean Ing used this premise in his 1979 novel Soft Targets.
Let me remind you that calling up Darl McBride and reminding him that he is an asshole is also considered vigilantism. So is subscribing known spammers to mailing lists. Morality isn't as black and white as you appear to beleive.
I don't call up anyone to remind them they're an asshole. And I don't approve of other people making such calls. Ill-mannered insult is the sport of barbarians, not the act of a lawful citizen.
Black and white morality? I thought my various qualifiers about "in the eyes of", etc., expressed my moral ambiguity.
Ahh - So vagilantes are people sharing css decoding code...
And people circumventing DRM in Xbox'es.
No, I believe the analogy does not apply.
Sharing css decoding code, circumventing DRM -- these actions are not private justice. They are (in the eyes of those who disapprove) criminal activities -- the actions of an outlaw.
A vigilante is a citizen who takes action against a criminal. ("Criminal" in the eyes of the vigilante.)
The EFF says the vigilantes may be committing a crime.
Vigilantes are, by definition, committing crimes.
A vigilante is a private citizen who acts outside the law, taking the law into their own hands.
Some people (e.g. the vigilantes themselves) see this as a Good Thing -- enforcing Justice, where Justice would otherwise go unenforced.
Others (such as myself) see vigilantism as the roots of rebellion and chaos -- acting as a private government, in defiance of duly constituted authority.
Not that I have a hell of a lot of respect for duly constituted authority. Most of the cops I've met have been decent people, however, there's a long, sad history of cops acting as vigilantes, outside the law. Not to mention police states, governments run by mobsters, etc. etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, we say it all the time, "Corporations are running the country," meaning that corporations have undue influence over lawmakers; but it's getting to the point that we're going to have to find a stronger statement, like "Corporations are completely and utterly in charge of every aspect of our daily lives, using the government and their nearly exclusive control of all media content to keep it that way."
Social evolution in action: corporations are more efficient -- better adapted to their environment -- than nation-states.
Nation-states, in their day, were more efficient than kingdoms; which were more efficient than city-states; which were more efficient than tribes; which were more efficient than individuals.
I don't like it, but I accept that it's nature's way: the strong flourish, the weak fail.
Mein Gott, what can we do?
About corporate power? We can do nothing.
Live your life well, try to bring more love than hate into the world. That's all. No big stuff -- no Revolution, no Topple the State, no Stop the Corporations. Work to your scale, as an individual; the rest is History.
-kgj
I bet it's illegal to duel in the casino & you have to leave your hired help in the coat room.
Alternately, you can leave your hired help in the ratting-den, if you need to step outside for a duel.
-kgj
After all, in any form of mixing bin, all of the balls inside do have to obey the laws of physics.
Are you sure?
Maybe the balls choose to obey the laws of physics. Or maybe they were raised ignorant, and just don't know how to defy the laws of physics.
-kgj
For instance, it uses accelerometers to sense motion and this is used to give commands to the computer ...
Great for sex-toy mods!
if its on the internet it must be true
Not so.
-kgj
Don't forget [punch cards] are the real precursors to relational databases.
Very good point -- insightful!
-kgj
damn straight, now keep quiet all you communists
If they were capable of keeping quiet, they'd hardly be communists, would they?
-kgj
And since the night can be called "scheduled", there is exactly *no* unscheduled downtime resulting in 100% availability.
I like your thinking!
-kgj
punch-card lovers association held its annual conference and proclaimed punch-cards superior to all modern IDEs, compilers, editors and debuggers.
... umm, no hardware failure, and zero down-time (if the sun is shining).
Punch cards are all good and fine.
But if you want real power in a computing machine, what you need is something like Stonehenge, which has the advantage of
-kgj
And if I were the person who suggested I read "The Difference Engine" to introduce me to Sterling, I'd feel pretty dumb for suggesting this book. It would have been my very own suggestion which made me waste my time reading half of a novel.
Of course, "Difference Engine" was a collaboration with William Gibson.
That said -- I didn't like Difference Engine a hell of a lot. (Only the last third, really -- each third is a separate story -- the first was boring, the second okay, the third rocked.)
For a better collaboration w/ Gibson, read "Red Star, Winter Orbit" -- outstanding short story -- more notes in my other post.
-kgj
It's Long John Silver!
...?
Arrgh, Jim boy -- ye mean Sterling silver, don't ye
-kgj
I'm hoping the characters are a bit more developed instead of the stereotypical caste that they seem to come from in this guys' and everyone else's 'technothrillers'
Sterling delivers the goods -- the man knows how to create characters. A label like "techno-thriller" doesn't mean a thing -- all I know is that Sterling has got the right stuff, time and again.
Note that Harlan Ellison raved about Sterling's first novel ("Involution Ocean"). I'm not saying Harlan Ellison is always right, but man, it's damned rare that he raves about anything -- usually he savages anyone and everything.
See my other post for more comments and links.
-kgj
Globalhead is uneven, but the good stuff ("Our Neural Chernobyl", "The Shores of Bohemia") is really, really good.
... and man, you are there, you become an American, an Arab, a Russian.
Agreed -- not all of the Globalhead stories make the grade -- but don't miss "We See Things Differently" -- my God, that's a great story!
Sterling has an amazing gift for writing political fiction -- he writes American characters, Arab characters, Russian characters
Also not to be missed: "Red Star, Winter Orbit" -- short story, collaboration with William Gibson, appears in Gibson's "Burning Chrome" collection.
-kgj
Gates' credit card was hacked ...
The hack -- by Curador -- took place in 2000.
See: PBS Interview with Curador.
-kgj
Blame the [Japanese militarist] idiots that started the war to begin with so they could conquer Asia.
I agree with you. But I want to add that the Japanese had done quite a bit of conquering in Asia (Manchuria, Nanjing, etc.) prior to attacking America.
I recently read The Yamato Dynasty by Peggy and Sterling Seagraves -- very informative about Japanese internal political struggles.
-kgj
Remember, no one thought that al Queda had cruise missile capability before 9/11.
Not strictly true. The basic idea of crashing airplaines into American skyscrapers had been around for at least twenty years -- Dean Ing used this premise in his 1979 novel Soft Targets.
-kgj
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you're white.
Close enough: I look white, I live a white life.
Strictly speaking I'm a mongrel: a mix of Latvian, Scotch-Irish, and Plains Indian.
-kgj
Here in Canada almost anything goes. Maybe we're more open minded. Maybe we're a little less uptight. Maybe we watch a little too much American TV.
...?
....
You're watching "a little too much American TV"
Man, that's like saying you're getting a little too much nerve gas in your diet
-kgj
Let me remind you that calling up Darl McBride and reminding him that he is an asshole is also considered vigilantism. So is subscribing known spammers to mailing lists. Morality isn't as black and white as you appear to beleive.
I don't call up anyone to remind them they're an asshole. And I don't approve of other people making such calls. Ill-mannered insult is the sport of barbarians, not the act of a lawful citizen.
Black and white morality? I thought my various qualifiers about "in the eyes of", etc., expressed my moral ambiguity.
-kgj
Although it could happen, I'm sure a monopoly the size of MS could never be allowed to acquire the media behemoth of AOL TW.
Microsoft should acquire the Dept. of Justice -- clearing up several legal nuisances in one fell swoop.
-kgj
Ahh - So vagilantes are people sharing css decoding code...
And people circumventing DRM in Xbox'es.
No, I believe the analogy does not apply.
Sharing css decoding code, circumventing DRM -- these actions are not private justice. They are (in the eyes of those who disapprove) criminal activities -- the actions of an outlaw.
A vigilante is a citizen who takes action against a criminal. ("Criminal" in the eyes of the vigilante.)
Outlaws commit "crimes". Vigilantes punish outlaws.
-kgj
The EFF says the vigilantes may be committing a crime.
Vigilantes are, by definition, committing crimes.
A vigilante is a private citizen who acts outside the law, taking the law into their own hands.
Some people (e.g. the vigilantes themselves) see this as a Good Thing -- enforcing Justice, where Justice would otherwise go unenforced.
Others (such as myself) see vigilantism as the roots of rebellion and chaos -- acting as a private government, in defiance of duly constituted authority.
Not that I have a hell of a lot of respect for duly constituted authority. Most of the cops I've met have been decent people, however, there's a long, sad history of cops acting as vigilantes, outside the law. Not to mention police states, governments run by mobsters, etc. etc.
-kgj
We mentioned these in 2002.
And you will again in 2005.
-kgj
how many innocent people wrongly flagged as being unsavory?
... that way, I'm less likely to be eaten alive ... although, yes, they may chew me up and spit me out.
I prefer being an "unsavory character"
-kgj