From: Nathanael Allison (jubungalord@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Jan 16 2003 - 10:50:04 MST
I understand what your saying. The writers would have to get paid, morally
and economically.
Most goverments control education to some extent. Any information that has a
scientific basis, is based on facts, is education. I would much rather have
a goverment who spends money to pay writers so that there work is free to
the public. This is very communistic but so is controlling education in the
first place. Many people would rather privitize all education. This may lead
to cheaper and therefore better education all around. I dissagree with this
in the long run, the level of education between the rich and poor students
will get further and further apart. By making any sorce of education subject
to a free market you will create a class bias education system not only for
your country but for every country. It doesn't take long to go to most run
down trailer parks and immediately notice the difference in intelligence
from middle and upperclass communities. With many current systems of
education I can't see how this problem can be resolved.
In America something has to be done. If the richest country in the world's
education system is constant turning out a large percentage of stupid people
than how will any progress occur accept very slowly by the top 1% of the
very intelligent.
What do you think?
>From: Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Re: free information
>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 19:30:11 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>--- Nathanael Allison <jubungalord@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Actually I find the hording of information by the super powers and
> > thier middle and upperclasses a hundred times more selfish than one
> > person stealing copies of books. It ensures thier dominance over
> > other countries
> > and other people. Isn't that the definition of a selfish act, to put
> > yourself before others. Of course it's not practical to get everyone
> > on the
> > same page but it couldn't hurt to make the information accessable in
> > some form or another.
>
>Just what sort of 'hoarding' are you speaking of?
>
>Putting yourself before others is simply human nature. If you seek to
>put me in chains, I will surely put my interest in living free before
>your interest in enslaving me, to the point of violence.
>
>Stealing the hard work of another is slavery, pure and simple. It
>doesn't matter if you only want to enslave that person by a small
>fraction of their output.
>
>Information is accessible to all. That is what libraries are for. What
>you want isn't free access, it is to steal whole books, to HOARD books,
>hidden away from the access of others, for your own personal use
>without paying for the privilege.
>
> >
> > What possible disadvantages could there be by allowing non-fiction
> > books to be free on the internet. What, you have to have a commitee
> > to determine what is non-fiction. If people want to make money they
> > shouldn't be trying to reflect objective Truth in a scientific way
> > like you say we are trying to do. Trying to make money will create
> > a more non-scientific text because
> > people will write to sell, not write the truth.
>
>By what rational logic or other moral/ethical argument can you say that
>fiction should be protected but non-fiction should be free?
>The non-fictional work of an author is still work, and they deserve to
>be paid for their work in proportion to it's popularity.
>
>Science texts have always gotten MORE accurate, and have also always
>been far more profitable, and expensive, than fiction or other lighter
>reading books. For example, Isaac Asimov earned far more money from his
>science books than from his science fiction.
>
> >
> > At a certain piont extropians have to worship a religion called
> > causation. They have to believe thier is nothing random and
> > undeterminable. They must believe that what they think pertains in
> > some way to reality. If they do not
> > than what's the piont of any of this? Why not worship any religion?
>
>What is reality is that if writers cannot get paid for their work, most
>will not write. Most artists will not create, not nearly to the degree
>they do, if they cannot earn something for their work. Those that
>continue to do so will never reach the same number of consumers without
>the legal and justifiable profit-seeking investment of publishers,
>galleries, music distributors, etc. Those that ignore this reality are
>the same sort of fools that thought that socialism and communism were
>valid economic systems.
>
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