[p2p-research] Fwd: [fcforum] Fw: iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!

[Michel Bauwens]

hi Ryan,

you may not like the term artificial scarcity, fine, but then you still come
up with another one to define something that objectively shareable without
loss, yet is forbidden by the force lf law, and not by anything inherent in
the qualities of the object ... so, what are your alternatives, given that
you cannot wish the objective realities of nonrival goods away?

I think much of what we see depends on our contexts, since from where I'm
sitting, not only is the political aspect of p2p not declining, it is
emerging and growing and maturing. I'm not hung up on these politics though,
but my wish and position is to be integrative, i.e. thinking and doing,
technology and politics, all are needed, none can be dismissed. I'm assuming
that this is not the case for you because you are convinced that technology
is its own independent force, while I believe technology itself is social
and political, i.e. it evolves in certain directions, not others, not
because it has its own volition or direction, but because it is pushed and
used in various directions by social forces. Plenty of tech gets not funding
or push, others stay hidden and unused for decades ..

Otherwise, I agree with you that the heroic age of theory is past, if only
because both the age of the 'great individual' and cognicentrism, has past.
Knowledge now has to be integrated in practice and communities, and this is
probably why people like me, instead of writing books on their own, want to
participate in dialogic communities which create peer learning and
collective intelligence as a permanent process ... I wish I could be more
practical and code, but I'm afraid my practice is that of a 'librarian' or
knowledge organizer ... my bad <g>

2010/2/11 Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com>

>  On 2/10/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think it is important to distinguish concepts that describe some
>> objective feature of reality, like artificial scarcity and rent, as used by
>> me and Kevin respectively, these are just things that exist, and our opinion
>> of them.
>
>
> For reasons already stated, I would merely add that the statement above is
> highly contested (if nowhere else, in my own mind).  It is further lesson to
> me that what we sometimes take as simple reality and existence is often
> contested and primarily political and that others likely see our reality in
> the same ways.  How we resolve such disputes (besides simple democracy
> and/or fragmentation) is an eternal frustration.  I suppose that is the
> greatest justification of all for markets and freedoms of association and
> thought.
>
> I like Kevin's positive law explanation because it is straightforward and
> consistent while also something I can easily (for myself) reject
> intellectually as flawed for a number of reasons he has no doubt heard and
> read from the many commentators who have taken it on.  As someone with too
> many arrows of Internet debates in my back since the days of USENET, I have
> come to strongly prefer the arguments that are made elementally
> and sequentially.  In short, I can follow them.  That may be a transatlantic
> thing too, much discussed, where I think Europe tends to lean toward nuances
> and encapsulations that are simply too subtle and flexible for those of us
> in the newer parts of the world.
>
> P2P (not P2PF), it seems to me, is having a down period in that it seems
> that the political element of it is going to prove increasingly irrelevant
> in the face of vast and titanic social waves that are moving in similar
> evolutionary directions.  In my opinion that is leading to somewhat
> desperate discourses in an attempt to revive something of a "movement"
> element that seems adrift (or overwhelmed), at best.
>
> I am personally invested in the anti-carbon movement and feel great
> frustration at its current political dismissal even while I can plainly see
> its mainstreaming is becoming self-evident even though it is much bleached
> from what I wish it was.  Still, the world is slowly awakening.  I see the
> whole set of IP issues similarly.  People will still write and rant and try
> to be a vanguard, but those aspects don't matter much when things start to
> mainstream.  Pirate parties, etc. are arising.  They are irrelevant.  Their
> issue/day is already done as is predictable because organizations and
> institutions are now moving far slower than societies.
>
> My recommendation (to the theory community) has always been to focus on the
> future--the relatively mid to distant future of 10-50 years.  It is in that
> period that great flux will occur.  While it is true that basic assumptions
> are everything in "futurism" or "future studies," it is not the case that
> basic political or moral assumptions about the present necessarily disrupt
> agreements about possible outcomes.  That said, I completely agree with Sam
> Rose that the heroic portion (my words not his) of what was the movement is
> actually "doing" resilient projects of P2P.  The heroic period of theory is
> past.  I also agree with Michel that teaching and writing are always vital.
> Less so, but perpetually useful...because it is from the teachers that the
> doers will be sent (typically).  The Age of talk is closing.  The Age of
> Doing has just begun.
>
>
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>


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