From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Sat Mar 18 2000 - 09:55:51 MST
Brent Allsop wrote:
>
> Extropians,
>
> The first big clue that Bill Joy is way off in his wired
> article comes with his comment early on:
>
> > "control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a
> > tiny elite - just as it is today"
>
> I don't know how he came up with this but to me nothing could
> be further from the truth. If there is one thing today's heigh tech
> internet world is making blatantly obvious, it is that religions,
> countries, companies and any group controlled by a central "tiny
> elite" are doomed to never again wield the power they once had over
> the masses. In this day where almost every citizen has a large and
> rapidly growing stock portfolio, and the ability to purchase huge
> amounts of computing power, every individual is going to have the
> ability to do and get almost anything they want, completely ignoring
> any central government elite or whatever.
I would have to disagree. At the current time, corporations and other
large "elite" groups can wield far more computing power than you can
possibly buy. Even if you get all your friends together ala SETI. IBM
is going to have a petaflop computer in just a few years. All cheaper
computer chips mean is that the corporations can still buy many more
of them than you. I will admit that the Internet is quite an empowering
invention for the individual, buts lets face it that big money still
matters.
P.S. I realize I am not rebutting exactly what you posted, but you on
the other hand were not rebutting exactly what Joy said.
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