From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Mar 29 2002 - 07:02:00 MST
Hal Finney wrote:
>
> Some people deny this and point to alternative ways for these products
> to be funded, but none are convincing to me. Most people prefer to
> just bury their heads in the sand and not face up to these uncomfortable
> facts. They are like Alex in the Doonesbury cartoons running this week.
> They think there is an inexhaustable fountain of information goods and
> that they can drink from it forever for free. I hope that around here
> we can expect a little more rigor in our discussions of this problem.
> Foaming about the evil corporations is a distraction from the real issues.
Actually, it seems to me that Alex in Doonesbury has articulated one
possible solution; her generation won't pay for content, but the old fogeys
will continue to do so out of force of habit, thus supporting the content
producers. Now all we need is enough life-extension technology to make this
an indefinitely sustainable solution.
(CCII.)
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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