Have we failed? The economy
I feel like if there are places available to live, and people living under overpasses who would rather be living in houses, we’ve failed. I don’t care if those people like to drink, or don’t feel like waking up at 9 am.
I feel like if there are people wanting to travel, and seats empty on airplanes, then we’ve failed. I don’t care how many bits are set in the registers in some computer that pretend to be their account balance.
I feel like if there are people who want to work, and things that need doing, and those people aren’t able to find jobs then we’ve failed. I don’t care about the registers in some computer that pretend to be some corperation’s bank balance
I feel like if there are people who want to learn, and seats left at the university, then we’ve failed. I don’t care about either the bits in the register that are the university’s account balance or the bits in the register that are the individual’s.
I understand that the value of money is largely tied into our beliefs about it. I also understand that there is someone who would rather be living indoors than under a street overpass, but who would also rather be writing music than software at this point. So I feel like you (plural, whoever’s in charge around here) have failed me. Or maybe I have failed me, because maybe I do this to myself out of a lack of faith that you would pay me to do what I want to do. On the other hand, I’ve dipped a feeler in the water in the form of my tunecore account, and money has not come in in droves despite the fact that one of the songs I cowrote with Jessica has a million downloads off my web server. So someone out there is cheating. Okay, enough, stop. The money thing is stupid anyway, and most of us know it if we stop and think about it. Really, I am telling you to grow up, whoever is hoarding all the money. Get that stuff in circulation. Stocks = meaningless. Let’s crash the system, and force it to reboot in a way that fits the earlier statements in this blog post. Chris, aside from the drugs to make everyone docile, This Perfect Day was a fucking awesome system. Why isn’t it here today?
And hoarders.. of which I’m one and I speak to myself as well.. give it away. I’ve done it, over and over, and you will feel sooo much better knowing it’s in circulation and being used in the ways it was meant to, instead of in your way. Living in the ebay world means you don’t *have* to hold onto everything, because you can always get what you need when you need it. Aside from the issue of money – which, as I’ve said above, needs fixed and I keep waiting to see someone with the clout to do something about it stand up and admit that it’s all just bits in computer registers, and what’s needed is better software and less of a “You must work to deserve to eat” attitude.
Joe McCartney would have my balls.. except this is my time, not his.
September 6th, 2011 at 5:01 am
I did want to say.. it isn’t just me. I think we all deserve to get what we want, and that when we work together, we’re smart enough to create a system that will give us just that. I think it’s possible that we already have, and I’m just missing the API guide.
September 6th, 2011 at 10:08 am
Idealism unattached to practicality is a useless daydream, man.
September 6th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Which part of This Perfect Day? How long has it been since you read the book? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Perfect_Day
September 6th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
In particular, the computer system powerful enough to keep track of what resources were available, what everyone wanted, and manage to keep everyone fed and housed. I wasn’t a big fan of the ‘only four names’ bit, and I think the programmer of the system was a sick guy or he would have let everyone who showed the talents and skills to be a programmer program – and the system would have been programmable from every terminal, and terminals would not have been barcode scanners but a combination of RFID readers and full-on PCs of the sort we use today.
September 6th, 2011 at 11:34 pm
In answer to your other bit.. I remember the entire plot, all the characters, and I think there was some useful stuff in their utopian dystopia. The problem wasn’t the computer – which was a bad-ass gorgeous system – but the jackasses programming it.