11–20 of 108 posts
I don't like how people get defensive around capitalism; "our ideas are not at odds with capitalism", ok, so what if they were? If an idea is at odds with capitalism, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea. For instance, I think the idea of free software (RMS style) really is at odds with capitalism; but so what? This is not a good reason to agree or disagree with the idea.
tl;dr: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc
I don't like how people get defensive around capitalism; "our ideas are not at odds with capitalism", ok, so what if they were? If an idea is at odds with capitalism, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea. For instance, I think the idea of free software (RMS style) really is at odds with capitalism; but so what? This is not a good reason to agree or disagree with the idea.
Your viewpoint is only sensible if one is neutral or negative toward capitalism and assumes everyone else must be as well. If you think capitalism is a good thing, then of course something being at odds with it is problematic.
Something can be problematic but that still doesn't make it a bad idea. It might be a brilliant idea which challenges you to modify your viewpoint - perhaps you end up questioning the particular form of capitalism which you think is good. Perhaps you end up endorsing your former viewpoint and discarding the new idea. hasenj's point is perfectly valid: "If an idea is at odds with capitalism, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea" (even if it might be problematic).
I don't like how people get defensive around capitalism; "our ideas are not at odds with capitalism", ok, so what if they were? If an idea is at odds with capitalism, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea. For instance, I think the idea of free software (RMS style) really is at odds with capitalism; but so what? This is not a good reason to agree or disagree with the idea.
Your viewpoint is only sensible if one is neutral or negative toward capitalism and assumes everyone else must be as well. If you think capitalism is a good thing, then of course something being at odds with it is problematic.
For instance, I think Open Source is a great idea, but this alone is not good enough reason to think that selling iPhone apps is evil.
Acting very cautious and defensive around capitalism makes it look like a holy untouchable ideology; this is what annoys me.
I don't like how people get defensive around capitalism; "our ideas are not at odds with capitalism", ok, so what if they were? If an idea is at odds with capitalism, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea. For instance, I think the idea of free software (RMS style) really is at odds with capitalism; but so what? This is not a good reason to agree or disagree with the idea.
[deleted]
RMS doesn't care if you give him back your changes; he cares that you have the freedom to make any changes you wish. He wants you to be free from artificial restrictions imposed by copyright laws. He doesn't care if you share your changes with him.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Free software isn't at odds with capitalism. In fact, right of property is what makes free software possible (otherwise you couldn't enforce any free software license).
GPL is a hack; its existence is not an approval of the system in any way, shape or form. That's not the point though. Whether Free Software is at odds (or not) with capitalism shouldn't matter at all in any intelligent discussion.
But I don't think we should exclude the capitalism debate from an intelligent discussion since it has pretty huge implications. If you're advocating a system that is incompatible with capitalism, you have to first make the case for an alternative to capitalism.
Technically, BitCoin is hardly scalable. As every participant needs to be aware of every transaction, that gives O(N^2) computational/storage cost, assuming N is participants and transactions~participants. May be cured by a dedicated central server storing all the transactions, but then it is not P2P anymore.
http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/
"Oh yes, we'll talk about poker and #bitcoin on Tuesday's #TWIST. Guest Amir Taaki has experience w/this business model." http://twitter.com/#!/TWistartups/status/66565296550457344
I'm assuming the host will be @Jason Calicanis.