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December 17, 2005
Coding Our Way to Liberation
Over the last few months I've been getting more and more blown away about what is happening on the internet. I can trace this back to my time in San Francisco in May. Mark Pesce and John Gilmore, two if there ever was some of the most distinguished internet celebrities, were at Mind States. They were kind enough to spend time with me, so I asked them a simple question - "Will the internet be locked down, now or at some point in the future?". They both laughed at me, as gods might do, but they looked at my innocence and said, "where have you been? The genie is out of the bottle, and there is no way to put it back in!". "What about hardware?," I asked John, and he said, "It's just another machine running on code. Therefore it's software too, and software can be hacked!". Ah ha! I finally got it, silly me. And then, as quickly as it started, the gods resumed their more important conversation on things beyond the comprehension of a mere mortal like myself.
So I had an epiphany today, finally, about what this all meant on a practical and technical level. Well, right now we have a ton of highly successful p2p networks, programs and clients readily and freely available to download whenever you want. They are almost, if not impossible to censor or stop. The joke is on them, and all of this mea culpa from developers and companies is just lip service. They are playing the game to stay in business. They know their business model, like everyone else's is threatened by all of this, they're just not telling you, because they still need your money.
So basically, this means that the moment a company announces a new hardware or DRM implementation or system, even global wide re-standardazition or downright government and/or UN mandate backed by billions of dollars to censor the internet, WILL FAIL. They will fail because the moment they try to implement such a system, all it takes is a few hours from some clever 16yr old to code around it. Immediately the code is available on the internet, and within hours thousdands if not millions of copies will have been distributed. Before the control system could ever be in place, there will already be two steps ahead of them in releasing a work-around. Then the moment they try to block that code escape, more software is released on the then most robust p2p system, and around and around we go, except the hole to freedom keeps getting wider, because the pace of developing a 10 line program is a million times faster than the thousands of lines and thousands of hours to convert the internet over. So any attempts to shut down, block and censor the internet will become all the more pathetic and wasting. The sooner all of these companies, systems and governments of the world accept the reality the better off we'll all be. Whining about it will prove useless. It's kind of like people whining because cars and telephones came around, but they came anyway, because having one gave you such an advantage over not having one.
The same is true today for the internet. Having a free and open interenet is much more powerful and liberating that not having one. What does this mean for capital? Well it will become liberated too. Not in some weird right-wing Ayn Randian Extropian hell, but liberated from control. There will be no control of capital, which means the richest man in the world will have no more real power than anyone else. Because this capital freed by the network itself will be totally frictionless, fast and unstoppable, therefore making everyone rich. No more corporate control and wage slavery. Say hello to the leisure society. Of course the rich folk are all freaked out about this, because they are still addicted to being at the top. If everyone was as rich as they were, then what would make them special? Those poor unfortunate bastards who made money their goal and tied it around their self-esteem, as is happens in modern american capitalism, are in for the biggest ego deflation of all. If they are special because of their money, and since they spent ALL OF THEIR TIME earning that money, they have nothing else to show for it.
Oh well. It's not a matter of liking or disliking this scenario. It's inevitable. I realized it a few years ago, and so I now devote all my time to spreading as much joy and happiness in the world as possible.
Much love to all of you all for sticking through and supporting this site.
Paul
Posted by paul at December 17, 2005 02:52 AM"What does this mean for capital? Well it will become liberated too. Not in some weird right-wing Ayn Randian Extropian hell, but liberated from control. There will be no control of capital, which means the richest man in the world will have no more real power than anyone else."
Whoa dude! You're cutting corners here. Slow down and explain this in more detail please.
Capital gets liberated and therefore everybody's rich? How does that work?
Posted by: Jay at December 8, 2005 04:33 AMVery interesting and encouraging conjectural post, Paul. And I say "conjectural" merely as regards the capital thing, not the 2 or 3 steps-ahead lock-down work-around thing. I empathize with Jay, in that you might want to elaborate a bit more on your "frictionless capital" scenario. ***However, we should note--and, Jay, please take special note--that you, Paul, have indeed *already* elaborated to some significant extent on "The Coming Leisure Society", which you were kind enough to link to the current post (and, Jay, you'd be well advised to read it, **then** ask more precise questions...)
Having said that: Paul, if you would, can you now elaborate a bit more on how/why you see the "leisure society" scenario coming to fruition over the next 10-15 years or so? I'm sympathetic to it (i.e., to the *plausibility* of it's coming to pass, not the goal itself---the *latter* is a "no-brainer"--**of course** I'm ultra-sympathetic to *that*!!). Which is to say that there are powerful forces, processes, & institutions already in place to facilitate it's coming-about. BUT, e.g., Marshall Brain (marshallbrain.com), in his "Robotic Nation" series of essays, sees the potential (at least in the short/medium-run) of much more Corporate-Orwellian nastiness, and his scenario(s) are not especially *im*plausible at all---indeed, they're quite chilling!!
So Jay & others might benefit from more elaboration by you of your insights and conjectures, and in a constructive critique by you of others' less sanguine projections (i.e., such as Marshall Brain's)
Gotta run for now...
Love & prosperity to all!
Posted by: MCP2012 at December 8, 2005 02:15 PMHi Jay,
This is definitely a good topic for discussion and debate. Before we do however, I need you to read the following posts, so you are aware and up to speed on my thinking to this point:
Capital, Power, and Ecology: Reasons for Optimism
Political Optimism: Reasons for why Martial Law won't work
and as I mentioned in the post, you need to read:
Posted by: Paul at December 8, 2005 02:31 PMThanks, Paul. Just what the doctor ordered (so to speak)! I'll post more soon, but gotta run again here soon-on now. Paul (and everyone else) should check-out both Marshall Brain's "Robotic Nation" series of essays at his site (see above), and also check-out Jim "Cyber" Lewis' wonderful essy on "Robotopia" (cyberlewis.com/graphic/posthuman/topia/Robotopia.htm). The "Robotopia" essay is wonderful at lillustrating and evoking the dialectical inevitibility (not to sound Marxian or Hegelian about it!!) of a totally-cybernated catallaxy evolving rather quickly out of already-existing or soon-to-come-into-extence technology. Marshall Brain's "Robotic Nation" series of essays (http://www.marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm) also discusses much the same thing, but sees the potential of, shall we say, less-than-smooth-sailing into a total-leisure society (and please be sure also to read his novelette MANNA, also at his site, http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm, wherein he proposes his own solutions). I RESPECTFULLY URGE EVERYONE TO NOT ONLY READ PAUL'S EXCELLENT CONTRIBUTIONS, sited above, BUT ALSO THE "ROBOTOPIA" AND "ROBOTIC NATION" STUFF AS WELL, as they will contribute mightily to the discussion(s) in this new post/thread.
Thanks again, Paul, for your recent very interesting & encouraging posts. It's wonderful to have you actively contributing again, after your short haitus!! We would all profit greatly from **your** (Paul's) insightful critiques of some of Marshall Brain's stuff. Brain has some pretty good points to take into consideration, plus his proposed solutions, while not super-suggestive or evocative for me personally, are worth checking-out.
I'm off to run errands (this is one of my days-off from wage-slaving...), but shall post more later tonight and/or tomorrow.
We, each of us, individually & collectively, are the MetaCosmos waking-up to full CONSCIOUSNESS...
Warmest regards to all, always...
"We, each of us, individually & collectively, are the MetaCosmos waking-up to full CONSCIOUSNESS..."
DAMN STRAIGHT!!
Most of this topic is over my head, and Im more than willing to admit it! That being said, I still wholeheartedly embrace the goal, and I firmly believe that we can communally forge the way ahead towards such a civilization ... just as soon as we remove the cancerous tumors that now plague us: fundamentalisms of all types, corporate hypocrisy, the political criminals, etc .... all of which, at heart, are cases of a select few dominating a certain portion of the populace. Expose the wrongful intent of those select few, and a more global, inclusive game will come into play ...
Upwinger ;)
Posted by: Upwinger at December 8, 2005 06:02 PMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Adepts
Posted by: core at December 13, 2005 03:14 AM