Uh-oh, OFFTOPIC!!!

On Jul 15, 2005, at 7:18 PM, Alan Grimes wrote:

> Josh Gargus wrote:
>
>
>> On Jul 15, 2005, at 3:10 PM, Alan Grimes wrote:
>>
>
>
>>> Re:Closed Source drivers.
>>>
>
>
>>> Just Say No(tm).
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>> Why, exactly?
>>
>
>
> Your reasoning makes sense if you consider only the present. It is  
> true
> that my sale accounts for 1/100,000,000 sales...
>
> But you need to keep your eye on the future.
>

I do my best.  One thing to remember is that the future is full of  
exponential curves (or exponentially accelerating
exponential rates of growth, if some futurist models are to be  
believed).  Whatever small change might be "achieved"
by 0.1% of the population not buying this or that brand of immoral/ 
counter-revolutionary/un-kosher technology will be
entirely lost in the chaos.  Now is the time for neophiles to ride  
the changes to the future that they envision, not to dig
in your heels and try to stop the system.

> In the next decade, computer technology will permiate everything you
> own. Without the ability to write your own software, all of your
> posessions will actually be owned and controlled by whomever controlls
> the code. (NewLine and Microsoft and whomever has power over such  
> things..)
>
> A decade after that things will be worse.
>
> If you are a transhumanist, like I am, closed source drivers will be
> utterly intolerable.
> There are many schools of transhumanism, not all of which I agree  
> with,
> but the basic premice is to enhance the human body and mind with
> technological augmentation.
>
> My philosophy is to draw the line and hold it. At all costs, and at
> every opportunity.
>

This philosophy is orthogonal to transhumanism.  For example, it is  
held by neo-luddite punks.  Not saying
that it is wrong, just orthogonal.

>
>> There would be no Croquet project if we followed this  advice.   
>> Such a
>> policy of abstinence will not change the world; your impact on the
>> market will not be any  greater than if you simply join the billions
>> on the planet who don't have access to computers.
>>
>
>
> =(
> I am painfully aware of that.
> I bought 4 AMD CPUs in the last few years to, in part, help support
> competition in the PC industry... Now AMD's on the ropes and Intel is
> hitting below the belt and not letting up..
>
> AMD bet the farm on Opteron and if Intel hadn't bribed all of the OEMs
> they would have won...
>

Maybe, but that's the world that we live in, and it's nothing to be = 
( about.

>
>> IMHO, it's best not to restrict yourself, and instead take advantage
>> of what is currently available if you want to change the status quo.
>>
>
>
> Come again? How does that help change the status quo?
>
>

Well, for instance, if Croquet gets a billion users (cross your  
fingers), then the status quo will have been changed (if this  
happens, widely
available open hardware will be a more feasible goal to pursue than  
it is now).  If the Croquet developers decide not to develop Croquet
because they refuse to use closed-source drivers, then the status quo  
will remain.  Seems reasonable to me.

Cheers,
Josh