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Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

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Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#21

Post by ryanwaggoner »

mc wrote: post #19

Human travel. You know those moving walkways (Trav O lators?) that they have in airports to speed up travelers? I'd place those everywhere. Want to go to the grocery store? Walk there in 5 minutes. Living in LA and need to visit SF for the weekend? Get off your ass and walk there. The thing that bugs me most about cars, in addition to wasting gas, is that they're isolating devices. They prevent me from admiring scene…

Living in LA and need to visit SF for the weekend? Get off your ass and walk there.

Umm...what? Are these moving sidewalks going to travel at 50mph?

The thing that bugs me most about cars, in addition to wasting gas, is that they're isolating devices. They prevent me from admiring scenery, meeting interesting people, and walking more often.

Suggestion: ride the train. You can talk to people, admire the scenery, and walk around.

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#22

Post by csomar »

lionhearted wrote: post #3

Is it cheating to pick an international policy? I'd like to see completely open borders for non-criminals across the world, with no restrictions on working, schooling, relationships, or associations. Go where you like, when you like, unrestricted, without needing permission from anyone.

You are talking about Open-Globalization. This is not possible, since countries are not all allies.

May be in the future, when a country have all power over the others; or all the countries have the same power.

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#23

Post by lionhearted »

csomar wrote: post #22
lionhearted wrote: post #3

Is it cheating to pick an international policy? I'd like to see completely open borders for non-criminals across the world, with no restrictions on working, schooling, relationships, or associations. Go where you like, when you like, unrestricted, without needing permission from anyone.

You are talking about Open-Globalization. This is not possible, since countries are not all allies. May be in the future, when a country have all power over the others; or all the countries have the same power.

Upvoted as you, sir, are correct. I actually have serious problems with the current view of nations and citizenship.

To put a proper criticism of the current system together would take me pointing out premises and assumptions that people do not even know they have. I'd have to start by sharing some history going from the Peace of Westphalia to the end of WWII to talk about how the current notion of nations and borders developed.

Then I'd put my case together that I think there's some fundamental human rights that I reckon everyone should have, that no local government should have any jurisdiction over. One of those, of course, is full mobility like I put above, but also free speech, free assembly, and so on. Then I'd mention that localities could make local laws to handle things a bit different and specific to the particular place.

Finally, I'd take some guesses about how this would happen, where some set of armed group(s) or allied nations would declare a global constitution that all people had a right to, and a slow change would take place. Or perhaps decentralization of information makes enforcing borders effectively pointless. Or maybe warfare evolves even further away from conventional warfare as seems to be happening now.

Who knows? It's a complicated mess of a topic. I just think it'd be a really nice thing :)

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#24

Post by SwellJoe »

The music industry.

Some of the practices and licensing processes date back to before recorded music existed. Publishing, mechanical, and performance rights, as well as royalty organizations like ASCAP/BMI/etc., are all more than a little strange in a world with the Internet. And, I don't think I even need to explain why the major labels should go to hell.

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#26

Post by jacquesm »

lionhearted wrote: post #3

Is it cheating to pick an international policy? I'd like to see completely open borders for non-criminals across the world, with no restrictions on working, schooling, relationships, or associations. Go where you like, when you like, unrestricted, without needing permission from anyone.

It's not cheating (hey, this is hacker news right, and part of hacking is to 'bend the rules' a bit every now and then) and I think it is a fantastic idea.

There is nothing that pisses me off more than one human standing in front of another saying they can't go somewhere.

This planet belongs to none of us.

As long as somebody does no actual harm to it they should be free to go anywhere. Borders are one of the worst inventions ever and there ought to be a universal human right associated with your idea.

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#28

Post by jacquesm »

systemtrigger wrote: post #9
nico wrote: post #2

Credit cards / payment management. I hate that I cannot lock/unlock my credit card (online wire transfers, checks or other payment methods) at will, with a simple click of my mouse. I'd really like being able to choose when my credit card can be used, maybe using rules like: "only on weekends, between 11am and 7pm. never online.". Then if these rules are not met, no payment should be authorized. Alternatively, I shou…

You described a corporate purchasing card. Purchasing cards are designed to let you manage on-the-fly all kinds of spending parameters e.g. "no hotels in zip code 10001 Friday through Sunday." You'll pay more for these programs of course. Here's an idea: a card with a magnetic strip on each of its 4 (or 6 or 8) edges. Now instead of carrying multiple cards you carry just one. If you use both sides of the card, you co…

why a magstripe, just a simple chip and a confirmation dialog on the reader would do the same trick. Set one card as the default for old style equipment and you're backwards compatible.

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#29

Post by jrockway »

mc wrote: post #19

Human travel. You know those moving walkways (Trav O lators?) that they have in airports to speed up travelers? I'd place those everywhere. Want to go to the grocery store? Walk there in 5 minutes. Living in LA and need to visit SF for the weekend? Get off your ass and walk there. The thing that bugs me most about cars, in addition to wasting gas, is that they're isolating devices. They prevent me from admiring scene…

Want to go to the grocery store? Walk there in 5 minutes.

It's called a bicycle.

(It also makes it significantly easier to bring 50 pounds of groceries home; saving you from having walk there before every meal.)

Re: Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

#30

Post by jacquesm »

nico wrote: post #16
JimmyL wrote: post #15

Power adapters for electronics - no reason they shouldn't be a hell of a lot more standardized than they are (I don't mean just for mobile phones, which is underway - I mean for everything).

Add in different voltages and plugs on different countries and you get quite a mess!

standardize those as well.
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