Don, your plan is a great utopian vision. I hope it happens, at
least as an alternative to a more Orwellian future.
Just a couple more comments:
(cynical) POLITICS: if it happens, it will argueably be one of
the only times in the history of our nation where the government
actually creates policy in which interests of big business and
the people are both served at once. I guess by then every human
will either be an employee of a giant corporation or in jail, so
the point is moot.
TECHNOLOGY: the mention of "4-story mainframes" is funny. who
uses mainframes anymore? not even NASA. I guess banks do so they
don't have to rewrite their old code to run on cheaper machines.
But the point is, the processing power isnt the bottleneck. you
could do the calculations on a small room full of Pentiums, I'm
sure. By the time this vision occurs, if ever, the job will
probably be possible on a computer the size of your thumb. No,
the bottleneck is re-tooling the entire internet. Redesigning
and replacing every single router, and probably most servers.
But you're right, they're installing fiber everywhere and doing
lots of other upgrades for broadband purposes (even though they
can't convince anyone to really WANT broadband in any mass
numbers).
( i think it's likely that instead of an internet-wide scheme,
there will be 3 or 4 large corporate networks a consumer can
subscribe to and get all their entertainment - AOLnet, SonyNet,
and MurdochWeb, or something. you'll just pay for your "infranet"
like you do cable tv and you wont be able to see anything that's
on a competing network, and they'll each have their own payment
schemes and rules. but it won't be the Internet. )
ECONOMICS: here's another fundamental problem, Don: where does
the money come from? Is it really a tax? So does that mean it
comes out of everyone's income tax? Why? Why should I have to
pay equally for Merzbow and Brittany Spears? What if I don't even
like music? What if I don't watch television? I don't want to
have my taxes pay for Baywatch and "Temptation Island".
PHILOSOPHY: The cultural assumption is just repugnant to me, the
assumption that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING will automatically have a
price tag, and a tally of units moved. I guess that's already
almost totally the dominant worldview, but I want to fight that,
not reinforce it with law and technology.
I guess if the intelligent robots don't eat us all first, we'll
all just Consume Ourselves to Death.
cheerily yours,
smh
Steev Hise, Recovering Jaded Hipster
steevATdetritus.net http://detritus.net/steev
*Recycled Culture: detritus.net
*Watching power flow: capitalletters.detritus.net
*Democratic sound collage generator: soundbakery.detritus.net
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"it's sort of supposed to be a joke but you know once you've laid down that flat
four to the floor, it's hard to keep laughing because there's so much vomit
flying out of your mouth in such a continuous rocketing stream."
-Wobbly
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