Jaron Lanier on Fixing The Digital Economy

I don’t always agree with Jaron Lanier, but he has a way of really making you think.  In this case he looks at the  impacts of the digital economy (more specifically, negative ones), and how to fix them.

Jaron Lanier’s “Fixing the Digital Economy.”

It’s an interesting run-up as he looks at the huge data in the economy, and how some existing ideas might be cultivated to help maintain a middle class he fears is being crushed.

– Steven

Time for a quick roundup on the Game Consoles!

Thanks to Kotaku they have a good roundup of all the console news:

I also expect a summary of the Wii U as well.

Plus ANOTHER android game console:

It seems the XBox/PS4 rivalry is pretty strong, though I think they’re pitching at different audiences.  As for Android consoles, having three or so now is interesting, since they can draw from a similar install base.

– Steve

A Blunt Look at Simplistic Immortalism

That Superior Feeling, Serdar Yegulalp, on the limits of Immortality and Immortalism

I see only two ways for this to be possible. The first is the one Steven and I have explored before, where the resulting life is not life at all, but a stasis that we can call life only at the great cost of pretending that nothing was ever lost in the first place. The second method is where the costs of living are abolished only by way of force and dominion over others, exercised not just once but unceasingly.

Serdar’s response to my post on “The Hell of Heaven” is based on Barrows Dunham’s Man Against Myth – a book I have not read, but clearly need to, as he explored dangerous myths left after WWII.  Some of them sound all too familiar, as he explores a world where a few men tried to sacrifice many for godhood/racial godhood.  These are just like what I see in the quest for what I call Simplistic Immortality – “me immortal,” which often fit Serdars second method of immortalism in the above paragraph.

The rest of the post subtly explores the repercussions of the quest for Simplistic Immortality, and that eventually all bills come due and all plans collide with other’s plans.  Serdar handles this with great delicacy.  I on the other hand am willing to sweep subtlety aside to state things bluntly:

The quest for Simplistic Immortality, that of “I stay I and no one can affect it” makes every person, every phenomena, and the entire universe either the Immortalist’s enemy or slave.

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