Geekman's World: Open Source Prophecy

Probably due to the obscene and boastful nature of it's expression, nobody commented on my quite successful prediction of an open source car project. But I was right, and there's important implications to my successful prediction.

Few of my readers would argue that our society is currently driven by corporate commerce. The reason we don't have an affordable, reliable alternative-fuel car is because it's not profitable to build one, and profit drives the industry, and the industry builds the cars. Many would argue that we don't have cures for cancer or AIDS because it's not profitable to put billions of dollars into a research effort that may not yield results. And it seems that no single company can unseat Microsoft Windows from the OS throne. Our society has considerable industrial and scientific clout; but it's not devoted to bettering society, it's devoted to making profit.

That's why the open source model is so revolutionary and so important. For the first time in history, individuals from all over the globe can effortlessly collaborate on a range of products from the simple to the incredibly complex. When a cooperative of individuals can drive the software industry, the drug industry, or the auto industry, we can change the motivation of society from profit to universal mutual benefit.

A new book titled (marvelously) Wikinomics explains how the creation of value has become democratized. The information age is changing our society's economics, there's no stopping it, and it's a great thing.

UPDATE: The Wikinomics site has been Slashdotted. Here's Google's cached version.

Remember when you said nothing can be invented that is better than binary? Well, if you ever have a chance, read "Medical Neuroscience" by Thomas Pritchard and Kevin Alloway (check out pgs 12-31, especially 29 and 30), or simply grab a neuroscience textbook and read about synaptic circuits. Neuron action potentials aren't exactly on or off, but much more complicated than that... And in fact, quite fascinating. They make for extremely complicated circuits and thought. The on/off system is limited in its potential.

I would just like to point out that a completely electric SUV just came out with a high speed limit (over 100 miles I believe). Even if billions of dollars were put into AIDS research, it'd hard to predict a highly mutatable virus, and even if we found the cure, then there's the next thing to cure... what about cancer, tuberculosis, malaria... will it ever end? Aren't we all born with a fatal disease? Would we even want a world of physical perfection without death, which has been the drive of all evolution and time? Getting people to stop smoking is the single best thing to decrease cancer deaths. Getting people to have better (sexual, hygenic) habits it the single best thing to prevent transmitable diseases. It's not as simple as "society is bad, all we want is profit." I think there's been many examples of people devoting their time, effort, and money for universal mutual benefit, as you called it, or even simply love for others. The open source model is wonderful, but I'd recommend stating its wonderfullness instead of pointing fingers. Might get yours ideas accross better. ^_~

=P... sorry... couldn't resist playing the devil's advocate as a perfect means of procrastination.

Did you read this book? In my experience corporations and governments are great at shutting themselves off from the real world by ignoring anything that doesn't work to their advantage. All decisions are made by an elite few. Now that they've become computerized it's just easier for them to do.

I actually don't recall saying that about binary, though it is a pretty cool invention. (Maybe I'll just take credit for that anyway)

Actually, I don't advocate living forever. You may have noticed that I wrote a rant a while back about the problems with an immortal or especially long-lived (hundreds of years) human species. However, I do want everyone to have the opportunity to live a long, full life.

And I hate to sound like a broken record, but it's my very firm belief that society is bad, and all we want is profit. It's something I think that is the root of many problems, and whenever I see a potential solution I'll be found lauding it. Such is the way to Geekman's World. ;-)

Mom: I haven't read it, but Iain and I are very interested in attaining it, if only for the great title.