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€2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

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Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#281

Post by bidder33 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #115

So many conversations here and on Twitter focus on laughing at these people. But I think the most likely explanation is that they’re not this stupid. That it’s some form of fraud.

Or maybe it is simply a group of people who love jodos vision for dune. the idea of a film as a guiding prophet, visions of a flowing creative universe. and we want to play with that.

so we raised a bunch of funds and bought a cool book. now we are making an animation. we've been discussing ideas like sending funds to the makers of Jodorowskys Dune documentary which didnt even break even, as a way of thanking them too.

y'know, playing in the way we were taught, as hackers, as kids who grew up on the internet. To go out and do things, make things. hang out with our friends.

but hn would rather take a few snippets, call us all scammers and frauds, and hate on us.

but whatever.. we're gonna keep having fun ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#282

Post by TigeriusKirk »

cmdkeen wrote: post #19
ivanhoe wrote: post #14

It's actually 2.66M + 5.5% VAT = 2.8M euros ($3.2M USD), as stated on the bottom of the auction page: "VAT at the rate of 5.5% will be due on the total of the hammer price and fees charged to the buyer." https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6345488

It's probably even more than that with the "Buyer's Premium" tacked on - the Christie's cost calculator linked reckons that would be another EUR540,000 on top...

The "price realized" includes the buyer's premium. It's a bit of sleight of hand auction houses do in reporting results.

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#283

Post by nradov »

Kye wrote: post #262
mschuster91 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whether it's about wealth, ideologies or any other aspect of lifestyle: Suddenly it's right there, dangled in front of them. And for what it's worth, what is considered "luxury" has become more and more accessible/affordable or is not a status symbol any more: 7-series BMW models can be leased for ~800€ a month, luxury watches have fallen out of fashion, expensive clothing items can be rented or you just go for the…

That's almost $1k/month. I don't know where you live or what life you live that $1k/month for a car that's probably not very practical is viable, but that's not normal in the US. That's rent in the exurbs, never mind the city. That's over a third of median annual salary before taxes. Now add fuel, maintenance, registration, and insurance. And leases usually require better than minimum insurance, so factor in good ins…

Those leases include maintenance.

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#284

Post by acjohnson55 »

tzs wrote: post #251
donkeyd wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now everyone has it, there can be far more bubbles. Yeah, I feel like this is the issue. I've heard the theory that in the past, every village had a village idiot. The internet has enabled all these village idiots to find each other and to broadcast their idiocies. They feel strengthened in finding like-minded people and feel vindicated in their beliefs. Due to the size of the group and how vocal they are, they're…

I've heard the effect of internet compared to the effect of the printing press. For the people on the other side of the curve from the village idiot that was true. Before the internet we (on HN I think most of us are on that side of the curve justifying the use of "we" here) had libraries and we had elaborate systems for indexing and searching [1] and providing notification of new information in our areas of interest…

Notably, the printing press didn't immediately make good knowledge more accessible. A press was a very expensive, risky investment, and so was the typesetting of any particular content. The first killer apps were indulgences and polemic pamphlets. So basically a money racket and influencer content. Not much has changed.

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#285

Post by wongarsu »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #257
brazzy wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes back at least 50 years more, to Star Trek transporters. And the most chilling version I've seen is in Charles Stross' Glasshouse , where some soldiers fight a virus that infects the consciousness of everyone using such a transporter. They "rescue" an infected population by chopping off their heads and throwing them into a transporter hacked to remove the virus. IIRC only the heads because transporting the ent…

For me the archetypal story of the genre is Think Like a Dinosaur: The story postulates a transportation device (supervised by a dinosaur-like race of aliens) which can transmit an exact copy of a person's body to distant planets. The original body is disintegrated once reception at the destination is confirmed. In the story a woman is teleported to an alien planet, but the original is not disintegrated because recep…

Even aliens haven't solved the problem of exactly-once message delivery

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#286

Post by the__alchemist »

SuoDuanDao wrote: post #253
the__alchemist wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neal Stephenson explored this in this book Fall; or, Dodge in Hell (And to a lesser extent, Termination Shock). In this depiction, parts of the world; especially red state USA, has succumbed to a post-truth society, made possible through the internet. The narrator implies that we had a limited window in human history where people took a fact-based approach to knowledge, starting with the scientific revolution, and en…

This makes me think of Wilbur's writings on the pre-trans fallacy, the idea that 'post truth' and 'pre-truth' are identical. A lot of the 'facts based' approach did require trusted authorities, and there wasn't much thought paid as to who was a trusted authority. Now that some serious abuses of authority have happened we're suddenly aware of just how screwed we can be if we trust the wrong authorities, but the answer…

Sounds very Baysian.

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#287

Post by acjohnson55 »

kybernetikos wrote: post #227
sho_hn wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> War of The Worlds caused such a sensation when aired on the radio Today, the majority would dismiss the broadcast as nonsense, but a small, ardent minority would form a distributed, international community around taking it seriously that would then continue on for years and rip apart friendships and families, and potentially have sufficient critical mass to do something stupid. I feel the difference may be in the s…

I don't know enough biology to know if the metaphor is apt, but I think he's wrong. Small groups in isolation speciate faster, but that's not the same as evolving faster. I would expect that larger groups spanning many diverse ecological niches would feature greater diversity within the group and are able to explore more evolutionary avenues. Perhaps that's what we see intellectually as well.

Interesting, so by speciate faster, you mean they will evolve to be successful in their little niche, but probably become less resilient to diverse conditions?

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#288

Post by beckman466 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #211
osobo wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last ten years there has been a significant change in mainstream content from information (what) to personalities (who). A major driver has been the adoption of social media by the mainstream: Uncle Bob pawing his cell phone while on the toilet. Both closed circle SM (checking on your friends and acquaintances) and public facing SM (checking the influencers) have created a whole new, uncontrolled feeding groun…

> Whether it's about wealth, ideologies or any other aspect of lifestyle: Suddenly it's right there, dangled in front of them. And for what it's worth, what is considered "luxury" has become more and more accessible/affordable or is not a status symbol any more: 7-series BMW models can be leased for ~800€ a month, luxury watches have fallen out of fashion, expensive clothing items can be rented or you just go for the…

> 7-series BMW models can be leased for ~800€ a month

€800 a month? i have an income of €1100 per month. so after rent and bills (€500), i have €600 per month for all my other costs. no BMW for me.

although (like you(?)) i do live in a European country (Holland) where there is excellent, although expensive, rail/bus travel and biking infrastructure.

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#289

Post by Ostrogodsky »

the__alchemist wrote: post #240
jl6 wrote: post #158

For most of human history, people have lived in small, local information bubbles which were hard to penetrate with facts from the outside world. We see this manifest as the pre-industrial global patchwork of weird and wonderful religious/spiritual/cultural variety. Then somehow the world started to join up and information began to seep into local cultures and sweep away a lot of these pre-rational beliefs. And for a…

Neal Stephenson explored this in this book Fall; or, Dodge in Hell (And to a lesser extent, Termination Shock). In this depiction, parts of the world; especially red state USA, has succumbed to a post-truth society, made possible through the internet. The narrator implies that we had a limited window in human history where people took a fact-based approach to knowledge, starting with the scientific revolution, and en…

> especially red state USA

This is funny because you can say exactly the same about blue state USA. They seem to live in a totally alien world.

Re: €2.6M spent for a book at auction, believed they would own the IP

#290

Post by carapace »

jl6 wrote: post #158

For most of human history, people have lived in small, local information bubbles which were hard to penetrate with facts from the outside world. We see this manifest as the pre-industrial global patchwork of weird and wonderful religious/spiritual/cultural variety. Then somehow the world started to join up and information began to seep into local cultures and sweep away a lot of these pre-rational beliefs. And for a…

Cf. Robert Anton Wilson, specifically his writing regarding "reality tunnels".

In brief, what you're describing is the default state of humanity. In colorful language, human civilization is "the war between gangs of hypnotists".

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