Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer and one of the best known bloggers in the world (Boing Boing) talks about the future, self determination, mobility and copyright.
Cory’s concluding metaphor is about dead trees in a forest. We need to be able to clear a space on the forest floor so interesting life forms can get light and grow. The dead trees are those companies that have gone through the cycle of commoditisation and need to be eliminated to make room for innovation. There is much juicy goodness, my favourites are about self-determination and content.
Self-determination is good. At cellular level… [example about rats being shot at random intervals follows.] How we got progress, democracy, how we get commerce… total determination over your tools [eg computer programer].. no mediation, that layer where nobody’s telling you what you need to know and what you don’t need to know… what’s the pitch for wikipedia – if it’s wrong, fix it. Why do people get hooked on wikipedia because the Britannica may be more correct and exhaustive but you can’t change it, there is no self-determination in the Britannica, once it’s set, it’s fixed and you can’t make a difference to it…
People that lack self-determination have a kind of hierarchy – children, inmates prisoners, slaves – that’s what it looks like when we take away self-determination. Even budhists love self-determination. Because what could be a greater epitome of self-determination than the ability to ignore mere circumstances and decide for yourself what your mental state will be regardless of objective reality around you. That’s how important self-determination is. Of course, Moore’s Law is an outcome of self-determination…
And then Content is king [in the context of network carriers and handset manufacturers and mobile content]…
Even if I sent you to a desert island and said you get to choose – you can take your friends or your records. If you chose yor records, we’d call you a sociopath. These guys [carriers and networks] who are in the busines of selling conversations can’t figure out how much more valuable conversation is than mere content. Right? They are out of their minds!
Love it!
via Loic
