From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Fri Jul 28 2000 - 19:29:19 MDT
> "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" says:
> > Spike Jones wrote:
> > >
> > > Please, napster fans, how do we motivate people to do things
> > > like writing The Spike if their blood, sweat and tears can so
> > > easily be copied free? ...
>
> James Wetterau wrote: Spike:
>
> In addition to the evidence adduced by Eliezer, I would like to add
> the complete works of Shakespeare. Under your hypothesis he could
> never have written his works or they couldn't be very good...
James I do hope you are right, for I am not arguing that the tide
of "information-freedom" can be held back. Of course, every
generation will produce a few Eliezers, a few Shakespeares,
A few Linux developers, many other notables who will post good
stuff for free. But what if guys like Damien had to get a day
job flipping burgers to pay the rent? The Spike could not have
been produced in his spare time after a 9 to 5.
I am uncharacteristically pessimistic perhaps because I see
what kinds of information are free now. You sited BSD, GNU
and Linux, but most of the free info out there is advertisement,
lame sit-coms and religious propaganda. The problem will be
not just figuring out how to reward the good information providers,
it will be in finding the good information under mountains of
jesus-is-coming-soon memes.
Nowthen, I may sound more like my Tiggeresque self when
I say such a thing is conceivable: there have been systems
before in which good content providers were rewarded. The
commies underwrote composers for instance. Russia
in the 19th and 20th centuries produced some truly great
classical compositions. The US during the same period
eventually developed rock and roll, so that shows to go ya,
art for the proletariat masses isnt all bad. {8-]
This crit tool which I am just now coming to appreciate might
be a means to help identify good content by allowing users
to identify who has written commentaries on any given piece
of content for instance. Pay Pal might be used as Eliezer has
suggested to send someone a buck if you like their site. I
mentioned some months ago a guy who was an expert in
transmissions, who wrote and posted articles thereon, and
said he would continue to do so as long as he got enough
donations in the mail to make it worth his time. I havent
checked to see if he is still there. spike
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