Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

gutenberg.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 62 posts

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#31

Post by dochtman »

tetris11 wrote: post #16
prepend wrote: post #11

I like this book and I’m never quite sure how some of the terms were Doctorow capturing what’s going on and writing it down vs inventing it. I think how whuffie was described here seems like something that will really exist and I don’t know if there were any sites displaying cumulative karma for people. It was at least the first time I read it. Also, I think the “comm” described in Eastern Standard Tribe is the first…

I find Whuffie as a concept pretty interesting, though not that different from regular wealth. For example, being the daughter of prominent Imagineers did hold a lot of sway in their world, despite the daughter herself not being particularly remarkable. What I mean to say is, trust-fund kids will still be alive and well in some form in a post dollar world.

I think Doctorow later was more explicit about the downsides of a Whuffie-like reputation systems, IIRC even in one of his fictional works?

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#32

Post by dsr_ »

Waterluvian wrote: post #15

Okay so what’s this book about? I read “about this book” but it just wanted to tell me about copyright and publication details.

It's science fiction about economics, intellectual property, and the value of community.

But that tagline applies to nearly everything Doctorow's written.

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#33

Post by kaycebasques »

bitsoda wrote: post #24
pwdr_mnky wrote: post #10

I read this book on an iPod because Doctorow releases the vast majority of his work freely, so I could just upload a text file to my clickwheel. Weird, but awesome. The book itself is great too. I still think about a lot of the concepts to this day.

Ha, I had completely forgotten this was a thing I used to do. Thanks for bringing back good memories of scrolling through .txt files. It might sound tedious to those who never tried it, but the Clickwheel was a genuine pleasure to use for so many things. I still miss it to this day.

Obligatory repost of this 2009 gem:

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

https://youtu.be/9BnLbv6QYcA

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#35

Post by egypturnash »

dochtman wrote: post #31
tetris11 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Whuffie as a concept pretty interesting, though not that different from regular wealth. For example, being the daughter of prominent Imagineers did hold a lot of sway in their world, despite the daughter herself not being particularly remarkable. What I mean to say is, trust-fund kids will still be alive and well in some form in a post dollar world.

I think Doctorow later was more explicit about the downsides of a Whuffie-like reputation systems, IIRC even in one of his fictional works?

One of the early antagonists in Walkaway is a group of reputation economy jerkbags.

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#36

Post by tetris11 »

keepamovin wrote: post #20
tetris11 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Whuffie as a concept pretty interesting, though not that different from regular wealth. For example, being the daughter of prominent Imagineers did hold a lot of sway in their world, despite the daughter herself not being particularly remarkable. What I mean to say is, trust-fund kids will still be alive and well in some form in a post dollar world.

Maybe I'm extending your sentiment-vector too far in its direction (or maybe mistaking its direction entirely!), but are you at the: "So no matter what kind of future we have, there's still no point in trying, because in the end it's not about what you choose, it's about what's given to you?"-Level or a less extreme version of that-Level...?

The latter, as anything is better than what we have now; a semi-meritocracy for STEM and maybe a handful of other professions.

Whuffie seems like it would open up that definition to a wide range of careers and interests (artists for example), but would still suffer from some of the nepotism after the initial uptake of the value system.

I'm also wondering how one could redistribute Whuffie in a charitable kind of way

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#37

Post by flufferstutter »

totetsu wrote: post #18

It is reminding me of “Feersum Endjinn”. And the current season of Adventure time which is set in an alternative future Disneyworld.

Current season? I had a look and there is the new Fiona and Cake series coming at the end of August. But I thought there the last episode before that was in 2021?

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#38

Post by Waterluvian »

dsr_ wrote: post #32
Waterluvian wrote: post #15

Okay so what’s this book about? I read “about this book” but it just wanted to tell me about copyright and publication details.

It's science fiction about economics, intellectual property, and the value of community. But that tagline applies to nearly everything Doctorow's written.

Oh that sounds fun. I’m in.

Re: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)

#39

Post by matt-attack »

totetsu wrote: post #25
lproven wrote: post #3

As far as I know, all of Doctorow's books are on his website for free download anyway. E.g. here is Content ... https://craphound.com/content/download/ DAOITMK is here: https://craphound.com/category/down/

Wow every format imaginable. Even the ebook as gba rom

Apple Newton??

Curious though, is there a way to get it on an iPhone in the built in Books app?

Post reply on HN