From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Dec 07 2000 - 00:16:29 MST
From: "Jason Joel Thompson" <jasonjthompson@home.com>
> From: "Samantha Atkins" <samantha@objectent.com>
>
> > If it is not free (speech not beer), not open, then there are limits on
> > your ability to fully utilize it. If you are interested in it being
> > more powerful then you are interested in it being more open/free.
>
> Absolute disagreement, for precisely the reasons I have already cited.
Your
> direct equation of "power" with "freeness" is simplisitic. Does money
> become more powerful if it's free? Or it is made useful by the
> control/limits we place on it?
I realize I'm probably not going to change your mind on the subject (God
knows you aren't going to change mine), but as long as we're discussing
amicably...
OK, take your money analogy. Money does become much more useful when its
"distributed." Say there are a billion people on the Earth and a trillion
dollars. If one person has a trillion dollars, money is useless and has no
meaning. If one billion people each of a thousand dollars, suddenly you
have the potential for a robust a money-based economy.
> > > Laws of scarcity. Maybe you think it would be nice if every kid on
the
> > > planet could have a mint copy of Action Comics #1, but you can't argue
> > > that such a distribution wouldn't destroy an interesting market.
I'm not saying freedom of information would not have its drawbacks for some
people. But I am saying that those relatively few drawbacks would be more
than offset by the universal advantages made possible by open info. Sure,
if all info were available to everyone all the time, that would eliminate
the "I've got X and you don't, nanny-nanny-nanny" phenomena. Personally,
that I could live without. If I am free to create my world the way I want
it to be, I do not begrudge you the same opportunity. If I am happy with my
library of hundreds of scientific texts, why would I feel bad about your
library of thousands of science fiction novels?
Would you really miss the market for a limited supply of comic books if you
were able to enjoy every comic ever printed, in pristine condition? Are
your possessions really made that much more enjoyable to you merely because
there are people who want the same things you have, but are unable to get
them? So much so that you would not be willing to part with such elitism in
order to enjoy the bounty that free info would bring? Really? Truly?
> > Yes there is a place for secrets - in war or the equivalent, one's
> > personal information and affairs.
>
> That's not the position of the post to which I replied: Zero Powers
wrote:
You might say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. Someday you will
join us, and the world will be as one. Yes I envision a world where secrets
and their raisons d'etre (specifically including, but not necessarily
limited to, war) are unecessary relics of the past. Will it happen
tomorrow? No. In our (natural) lifetimes, perhaps not. Someday? I hope
and believe so.
> Further,
> you specifically use the term 'each of us' referring to individuals: can't
> you think of a few (thousand) ways in which the maximal power and good of
an
> individual is highly dependent on the controlled flow of information?
I can think of ways that individuals benefit from secrets. But I can also
see that those "benefits" pale in comparison to those which flow from the
freedom of information.
-Zero
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