Governments have nothing to lose from bitcoin. They could ban it and watch the value and transaction volume plummet in seconds as people drop off the network in droves.
And if you *liked* the vision of the future on snowcrash then you're pretty fucked up...
It's exactly what I think when I see those ads on tv. You know, the ones that come on at 2am -
Call NOW to get the full set of books and training vidoes on our get rich quick scheme! Learn how to become a power seller, start your own business selling online! Make huge profits!
Right, because if there were huge profits to be had you totally wouldn't be doing that now instead of hawking the meta-wares on late night tv....
Taking vitamin supplements is for sucker, hippies and weirdos.
There's no evidence they do anything for people with even a halfway normal diet. In fact taking too much of some vitamins is actively bad for you.
The vitamin industry, of course, resists all attempts to make them validate their claims or do full testing, instead relying on superstition and handwaving.
There's a reason the supplement advertisers were made to ad small print to all their advertising material in the UK - "Dietary Supplements MAY be beneficial to the elderly or thos on restricted diets"
"The real WTF is US has jurisdiction in the UK and the other way around?"
Hey, it's just the latest facet of the Global Free Market (TM), which is the latest thing in corporate and celebrity law.
Want cheap labour? Take production overseas! Want to maintain your profit margin? Have laws draw up to outlaw parallel imports!
This is just the latest thing, freedom to choose jurisdiction. Someone says something bad you don't like? Take it to the UK libel courts! Got a copyright related gripe? Have 'em hauled to the US!
Strange then, that I've lost count of the times I've heard that Social Security is a pyramid scheme from the very same types of people who seem to think bitcoin is a great idea.
Some of us don't like the default behaviour of some things, or find bugs, or just want to understand things, so we read the code. Can't claim to have read even 1% of the code for my machine, but I have looked at parts of it.
You know, when I read about people setting up bitcoin laundries, and the forum responses about how great all that was, I did start to think "there's a reason money laundering is illegal IRL isn't there?"
Eh? Pretty sure the Wii disks are just DVDs aren't they?
I know all the rest have been console specific, mostly because they were carts up until the gamecube, but I had thought they went with the standard last time.
Maybe the ease of piracy for the Wii made them change their minds.
Maybe we ought to make everything public. I mean everything. Then we could finally lose this stupid bloody hypocrisy.
If we could all see that almost everyone drinks too much once in a while, tried something illegal when they were in college, slept around a bit etc etc, then maybe we could stop being so judgemental. As a bonus we could then call out the people who never did any of this stuff for what they are - boring and uptight, not "moral" and certainly not "normal".
Of course back in the real world all it would mean was more imbeciles shaming each other and trying to restrict behaviour even further.
It is an interesting thought experiment, sure. And utopian thought is an easy trap to fall into. The story the OP was discussing, Manna, falls into the trap horribly.
I have little enough faith in humanity that if the human race were to become enslaved to a robot overlord I'd probably welcome it. Something along the lines of Iain M Banks "Culture" appeals to me. Not simply because people are free to do and be what they please, but because they are effectively controlled by far more intelligent and powerful beings. They become pampered pets with few (but solid) boundaries. A very cynical part of me thinks that's the best thing that could possibly happen.
It's a while since I read "The City and the Stars"...
Pretty sure that a lack of meaningful purpose is indeed deleterious for the human mind, and a lack of feeling valued for the fruits of your labour too. The ghetto examples are possibly a little off - I would posit that those living there had certain disadvantages including (and probably rooted in) parental attention and lack of inspiration/aspiration being instilled in them by parents or by the education system (which they most likely abused and left early anyway...)
Yeah, I dunno. A big part of me thinks there must be a better way, but the only better way I see is to cede control to some other entity!
No, one third is not "relatively few" where a currency is concerned. Especially one that is -
a) Currently a niche operator with views on major expansion b) Allowing the remaining two thirds to be mined at an ever decreasing rate over the next hundred years
There's no reason the robots would need to operate as individual units, they could very well be centrally controlled by one computer system. It doesn't even need to be an "AI" in the classic way of thinking about it.
And if that leads to Terminator style shenanigans.... I don't see it as a necessary thing.
Basically, I disagree that capitalism is a necessary and natural state in a post-scarcity society.
As others have said, it's Manna, and the other stuff on the guy's site was "Robotic Nation".
It's not the best written piece of fiction ever, but it does make a series of very good points about the way the world works, and the way things are going. I used to think very much along the lines of that stuff - what happens in a world post-scarcity, in which the established rich still own everything but there is no work for most people?
Of course you only have to look around at Africa and parts of Asia and South America to realise we're a hell of a long way from a post-scarcity world.
Slashdot Mirror
And how many people (in the privileged west) haven't seen a lion?
Maybe not in the wild, but come on, everyone's been to a zoo. Seeing a lion is not a rare event.
Eh, no. If you can verify your vote, you can be made to verify it for someone else. Verification in a voting system is just bad.
No, it doesn't.
For all "intents and purposes" addresses the current reality, regardless of initial design.
For all "intensive purposes" is nonsense unless talking about something like fertilisers and high density farming.
Some stories just warm the cockles of your heart that little bit!
Good to hear.
"Governments have far more to lose from bitcoin"
Governments have nothing to lose from bitcoin. They could ban it and watch the value and transaction volume plummet in seconds as people drop off the network in droves.
And if you *liked* the vision of the future on snowcrash then you're pretty fucked up...
Inisist on a decent/strong password. It's at least going to take some time to crack that way.
It's exactly what I think when I see those ads on tv. You know, the ones that come on at 2am -
Call NOW to get the full set of books and training vidoes on our get rich quick scheme! Learn how to become a power seller, start your own business selling online! Make huge profits!
Right, because if there were huge profits to be had you totally wouldn't be doing that now instead of hawking the meta-wares on late night tv....
By being a grade A asshole and 'monetizing' one more little bit of human trust!
Make the lives of tens of thousands of strangers just that little bit worse!
It's all money in your pocket! Call now and get our bonus DVD on cold calling your own grandparents!
Humanity fucking disgusts me most of the time.
Taking vitamin supplements is for sucker, hippies and weirdos.
There's no evidence they do anything for people with even a halfway normal diet. In fact taking too much of some vitamins is actively bad for you.
The vitamin industry, of course, resists all attempts to make them validate their claims or do full testing, instead relying on superstition and handwaving.
There's a reason the supplement advertisers were made to ad small print to all their advertising material in the UK - "Dietary Supplements MAY be beneficial to the elderly or thos on restricted diets"
"The real WTF is US has jurisdiction in the UK and the other way around?"
Hey, it's just the latest facet of the Global Free Market (TM), which is the latest thing in corporate and celebrity law.
Want cheap labour? Take production overseas!
Want to maintain your profit margin? Have laws draw up to outlaw parallel imports!
This is just the latest thing, freedom to choose jurisdiction.
Someone says something bad you don't like? Take it to the UK libel courts!
Got a copyright related gripe? Have 'em hauled to the US!
Why would his college papers tell you anything useful?
I'm ten years out of college and a completely different person.
Strange then, that I've lost count of the times I've heard that Social Security is a pyramid scheme from the very same types of people who seem to think bitcoin is a great idea.
Hi there.
Some of us do.
Some of us don't like the default behaviour of some things, or find bugs, or just want to understand things, so we read the code. Can't claim to have read even 1% of the code for my machine, but I have looked at parts of it.
The rules of a pyramid scheme, yes!
You know, when I read about people setting up bitcoin laundries, and the forum responses about how great all that was, I did start to think "there's a reason money laundering is illegal IRL isn't there?"
Eh? Pretty sure the Wii disks are just DVDs aren't they?
I know all the rest have been console specific, mostly because they were carts up until the gamecube, but I had thought they went with the standard last time.
Maybe the ease of piracy for the Wii made them change their minds.
Maybe we ought to make everything public. I mean everything. Then we could finally lose this stupid bloody hypocrisy.
If we could all see that almost everyone drinks too much once in a while, tried something illegal when they were in college, slept around a bit etc etc, then maybe we could stop being so judgemental. As a bonus we could then call out the people who never did any of this stuff for what they are - boring and uptight, not "moral" and certainly not "normal".
Of course back in the real world all it would mean was more imbeciles shaming each other and trying to restrict behaviour even further.
In 50 years I'll be laughing at Alzheimers because I have senile dementia, if family history is much to go by.
I made myself sad...
It is an interesting thought experiment, sure. And utopian thought is an easy trap to fall into. The story the OP was discussing, Manna, falls into the trap horribly.
I have little enough faith in humanity that if the human race were to become enslaved to a robot overlord I'd probably welcome it. Something along the lines of Iain M Banks "Culture" appeals to me. Not simply because people are free to do and be what they please, but because they are effectively controlled by far more intelligent and powerful beings. They become pampered pets with few (but solid) boundaries. A very cynical part of me thinks that's the best thing that could possibly happen.
It's a while since I read "The City and the Stars"...
Pretty sure that a lack of meaningful purpose is indeed deleterious for the human mind, and a lack of feeling valued for the fruits of your labour too. The ghetto examples are possibly a little off - I would posit that those living there had certain disadvantages including (and probably rooted in) parental attention and lack of inspiration/aspiration being instilled in them by parents or by the education system (which they most likely abused and left early anyway...)
Yeah, I dunno. A big part of me thinks there must be a better way, but the only better way I see is to cede control to some other entity!
No, one third is not "relatively few" where a currency is concerned. Especially one that is -
a) Currently a niche operator with views on major expansion
b) Allowing the remaining two thirds to be mined at an ever decreasing rate over the next hundred years
There's no reason the robots would need to operate as individual units, they could very well be centrally controlled by one computer system. It doesn't even need to be an "AI" in the classic way of thinking about it.
And if that leads to Terminator style shenanigans.... I don't see it as a necessary thing.
Basically, I disagree that capitalism is a necessary and natural state in a post-scarcity society.
What if the robots are autonomous? Out of control of individual people?
Then everyone gets the fruits of the robot's labour, with nobody being able to barter away their share of society.
Nah, that's subatomic particles. With anonymous members it's impossible to figure out where they are and how fast they're travelling at the same time.
Or maybe I have that backwards?
As others have said, it's Manna, and the other stuff on the guy's site was "Robotic Nation".
It's not the best written piece of fiction ever, but it does make a series of very good points about the way the world works, and the way things are going. I used to think very much along the lines of that stuff - what happens in a world post-scarcity, in which the established rich still own everything but there is no work for most people?
Of course you only have to look around at Africa and parts of Asia and South America to realise we're a hell of a long way from a post-scarcity world.
My kingdom for mod points!
I seldom laugh out loud at slashdot any more. Well done sir, well done.