Re: Degrees of Freedom

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 7:33 PM 2/8/96, Alex Strasheim wrote:

>The headers I clipped off of Tim's post might not be as farfetched as
>they seem at first.  What if they built a central storehouse of technical
>information that's accessible to all, transactional systems that
>facilitate international trade between member states, and left cultural
>and political content to the tyrants of the respective nations?
>Everyone's can grab mechanical engineering info, and evryone can buy
>shoes from China, but Islamic users will have to rely on Islamic sources
>for world news and political commentary.  Differences in human languages
>are going to make the tyrants' job a lot easier -- how many Chineese
>speak Arabic?

Not many Chinese speak Arabic, proportionately, but English is far and away
the most common _second_ language. This has been a major key to the success
of the Internet. The implications are pretty clear.

I'm skeptical about the technological feasibility of the "central
storehouse" model, for reasons technological as well as sociocultural.


>I don't disagree that eventually such a plan will fail.  But centrally
>planned economies competing with market driven ones will eventually fail
>as well, and that didn't stop communism from casting a long dark shadow
>over the second half of the century.  Is a laissez-faire response based on
>an extremely promising but still untested analysis (ie., crypto anarchy)
>prudent?

Sure, give it a try and see what happens. People die every day, of all
sorts of things. Every decision we make affects the timelines of others,
causing some to live that would have been on a plane that crashes, causing
others to accept jobs that ultimately result in their deaths, etc.

I learned a long time ago not to lose any sleep over the "potential" bad
effects that ideas can have.

--Tim

[This Bible excerpt awaiting review under the Communications Decency Act]
And then Lot said, "I have some mighty fine young virgin daughters. Why
don't you boys just come on in and do em right here in my house - I'll just
watch!"....Later, up in the mountains, the younger daughter said. "Dad's
getting old. I say we should do him." So the two daughters got him drunk and
did him all that night. Sure enough, Dad got em pregnant....Onan really
hated the idea of doing his brother's wife and getting her pregnant while
his brother got all the credit, so he whacked off first....Remember, it's
not a good idea to have sex with your sister, your brother, your parents,
your pet dog, or the farm animals. [excerpts from the Old Testament, Modern
Vernacular Translation, TCM, 1996]