A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
socallinuxexpo.org
A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
1–10 of 44 posts
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#2I had the privilege of attending this talk in person last weekend.
I'm generally very apathetic about politics in general, and have no interest in participating. By the end of this session, though, I think that may have changed. I'm not quite sure how I want to participate quite yet, but the seed's been planted.
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#3There's a conceit among technologists that Washington doesn't know how technology works. I don't think this is true. In my experience with the federal government, I have been quite amazed at how much people did understand. Washington is full of nerds. They are often latin majors rather than computer science majors, but they are nerds nonetheless, and they are sharp and quick learners.
What is missing is not people who are "technically enabled." Rather, it's people who share the values many technologists share. You can understand how TCP/IP works without buying into the philosophies pertaining to an open and neutral internet. And its those people that seem to shy away from participating in politics. Not people who can describe what happens when a packet gets dropped, but people who can articulate why its better to have an internet that doesn't drop packets based on who sent them.
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#4If you haven't seen Lawrence Lessig's other talk about campaign financing creating a second dependency within congress on their funders in addition to the people, it's worth watching.
www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#5I wrote all 130,000 lines of code myself, from scratch. I own all rights. It is public domain.
God is perfectly just. I can wait. You are fucked.
God says... fool Enough church Mom genius stoked Burp what_do_you_expect super_computer
C:\TAD\Text\DARWIN.TXT
casionally, as suggested by Lyell, have transported seeds from one part to another of the arctic and antarctic regions; and during the Glacial period from one part of the now temperate regions to another. In the Azores, from the large number of plants common to Europe, in comparison with the species on the other islands of the Atlantic, which stand nearer to the mainland, and (as remarked by Mr. H.C. Watson) from their somewhat northern character, in comparison with the latitude, I suspected that t
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#6For the benefit of those who can't/don't want to watch the video, can someone summarize what Lessig's "cause" is?
EDIT: More specifically, I am wondering why he's calling for the help of "technically enabled" people. What is the relevance of technology here?
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#7It's always interesting me to take the passion and fury of online discussions about politics and freedom and to reconcile that with the comparatively paltry amount of money donated to political organizations by people in silicon valley.
I think there's this feeling in Silicon Valley that "I'm changing the world through code" or "I believe the best ideas should win". And I wish that were the case. But in the meanwhile the Koch Brothers and hollywood quietly funnel bajillions of dollars into superpacs and get all the politicians in their pockets.
(I saw Lessig give this excellent talk at SCALE, and my take away from his talk is that we should remove the need for politicians to whore themselves out for money. And I strongly agree. But I guess I'm saying that in the meanwhile, if that's how the game is played, we need to put more skin in the game.)
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#8For the benefit of those who can't/don't want to watch the video, can someone summarize what Lessig's "cause" is? EDIT: More specifically, I am wondering why he's calling for the help of "technically enabled" people. What is the relevance of technology here?
[deleted]
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#9For the benefit of those who can't/don't want to watch the video, can someone summarize what Lessig's "cause" is? EDIT: More specifically, I am wondering why he's calling for the help of "technically enabled" people. What is the relevance of technology here?
His basic thesis can be summed up as:
The American political system (especially Congress) is very corrupt. This is due to the fact that it is almost impossible to be elected without raising a lot of money, and even harder to get reelected without doing so. This requires Congresspeople to spend a large fraction of their time contacting potential campaign contributors and convincing them to give money. It also makes them very very aware of which positions on which issues will bring in money. It also leads to large proportions of ex-Congresspeople and former Congressional staffers becoming (very well-paid) lobbyists.
And that because of this, nothing substantial to improve the current corporate/financial domination of American society can be done until the influence of money in politics is removed.
The poll statistics he quotes are worth noting:
1) 96 percent think that lessening the influence of money in politics is important.
2) 68 percent think that this is very important.
3) 91 percent think it's unlikely, and therefore not worth spending any effort on.
Re: A message from Lawrence Lessig [video]
#10It's always interesting me to take the passion and fury of online discussions about politics and freedom and to reconcile that with the comparatively paltry amount of money donated to political organizations by people in silicon valley. I think there's this feeling in Silicon Valley that "I'm changing the world through code" or "I believe the best ideas should win". And I wish that were the case. But in the meanwhile…
The refrain that politics is all about money is both destructive and counterproductive. If it were, that would be great, because Silicon Valley is rich. I don't know if you read the news, but Facebook is worth more than Halliburton and News Corp put together and Apple could buy both with cash on hand.
Lobbying is a big part of politics, but at the end of the day, the biggest aspect of lobbying is showing how proposals that benefit an industry: 1) fit in with politicians' ideological preconceptions; 2) create jobs. Silicon Valley punches beneath its weight in lobbying because its ideology doesn't fit neatly into either the left or the right, and because it employes relatively few people.