Quote:
Originally Posted by bingle
Just out of curiosity, why does the thread having something to do with computers make you less interested in debating these topics? The computer age has given us some very interesting conundrums in the philosophical realm. I find it fascinating, personally. How will society deal with these changes that are happening, faster and faster? I think a lot of people feel that the way it is now is the way it's always been and the way it has to be. I see nothing but promise in change!
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Right but philosophy is often limited in its discourse by dishonest debate. For people who are touched by the empowering promise of technology as well as its amazing ability to "devalue" something that lives within the digital domain by removing scarcity and exclusivity...it can be a very scary thing.
The funny thing about history is people can always look back on the past and say "well...that was an awful silly notion! Why would people think that made ANY sense at All?" about events past.
The trick is to notice it while it is happening. Its hard to separate one's self from a situation they are in the middle of and look in at it from the outside.
If nothing else, you get perspective...at the high end of the benefit scale...peace.
I could not see myself living another day tortured over some nameless person using software that I created without paying me for it. It was pointless.
More than enough people do pay. It is my job, my only job....so if they did not, I would not be able to live. What's more, that...obsession was inhibiting my ability to even DO the job.
I deal with the world, this world as it exists, right now. Pondering "what to do" I came to the conclusion that there is no acceptable "solution" to the problem that would not create bigger problems...nearly of a dystopian proportion.
The way I see it, digital products are one of the most amazing "things" man has ever made in the fact that while they are things, they are not real. They move near instantaneously from one side of the planet to the other. If you destroy one, or destroy many, as long as there is one left, there can be many...forever.
A great many minds have burned a great many hours and dollars trying to essentially, change the essence of what a digital product is, trying to chain them and constrict how they move, or even how they are created, by completely artificial means. It almost like trying to get rid of air without draining the oceans and killing all the trees. If you don't do those two things...there will always be air. Always.
Content people are asking folks to take part in a consensus hallucentation...to agree that digital things to not have the abilities they have and are of another nature...that they are analog, when it is perfectly clear and obvious to them that they are not.
Its not working.
They are asking that creators maintain the benefits of these digital things but consumers pretend they don't exists, these benefits.
They aren't buying it.
A house is not a man any more than an eBook is a pBook or an mp3 is a CD or a jpg is a painting.
They are different things. Until this is dealt with..truly dealt with, no solution posited by anyone that hasn't come to grips with this reality will be acceptable or implementable.