Re: William Gibson

[rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray)]

Alexander Reynolds () writes:
> 
> 
> > On the other-hand, you can also envision an anarchist future much like
> > Gibson's novells where everyone is a free agent and thus out for his
> > own good: capitalism.
> 
> 	It is only through theory that an pseudoanarchist capitalist State can
> exist, read Ayn Rand's _Atlas Shrugged_ and you'll see my point.  Gibson's
> futuristic view is not anarchy, it is multi-national oligarchy to an extreme.

  The very same thing could be said about anarchosocialism. Without the
fictional non-selfinterested man and the postulate of non-scarcity it couldn't
possibly work. (taking 3. anarchy - "absolute and complete freedom")

   I have never seen someone argue economic theory by quoting _fiction_
books. Gibson (and Sterling) are as clueless on economic issues as they
are on computers (e.g. Gibson's plan to improve schools by forcing telephone
companies to give teachers "free" long distance)

   The only way the super corporations in Gibson's world could exist is
through government help (e.g. Japan's restrictions on trade, distribution,
and banking) The barriers to entry in many markets are historically
low, there's no way a natural monopoly could exist, for instance, in
software, unless software patents (e.g. GOVERNMENT) prevent you from
developing. Stop reading fiction for your education and pick up
David Friedman's _The Machinery of Freedom_.

  Anarchy is the non-existence of rulers, not the non-existence of rules.

-Ray, capitalist exploiter extraordinaire


-- Ray Cromwell        |    Engineering is the implementation of science;    --
-- EE/Math Student     |       politics is the implementation of faith.      --
-- rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu  |                         - Zetetic Commentaries      --