Re: Why the future needs everyone!

From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Mar 18 2000 - 10:35:56 MST


>From: Brian Atkins <brian@posthuman.com>
>
>Brent Allsop wrote:
> >
> > Extropians,
> >
> > The first big clue that Bill Joy is way off in his wired
> > article comes with his comment early on:
> >
> > > "control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a
> > > tiny elite - just as it is today"
> >
> > I don't know how he came up with this but to me nothing could
> > be further from the truth.

<snip, snip>

>I would have to disagree. At the current time, corporations and other
>large "elite" groups can wield far more computing power than you can
>possibly buy. Even if you get all your friends together ala SETI. IBM
>is going to have a petaflop computer in just a few years. All cheaper
>computer chips mean is that the corporations can still buy many more
>of them than you. I will admit that the Internet is quite an empowering
>invention for the individual, buts lets face it that big money still
>matters.

Well, the fact of the matter is that the average individual presently has no
need whatsoever for control over large systems of machines. I personally
would have no idea what to do with a supercomputer, besides writing and
reading, like I do on my lowly Pentium class box. However, say, if some
sort of computational war were to be declared by IBM against the rest of us
(and if the stakes in the outcome were sufficiently important) the ~200
million internet users could combine the computing power of their machines
and absolutely trounce IBM.

Right now only the military and the police are allowed to have special
weapons like fully automatic weapons. But if war were to break out between
the police/national guard against the millions of legally armed folks in the
US with their hunting rifles and pistols, my money would be on the poorly
armed masses.

-Zero

"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson

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