[extropy-chat] In defense of slashdotters (was transhumanism == militant fascism)

[Dan Clemmensen]

Samantha Atkins wrote:

>
> I am often surprised by the gibbering monkey chatter level and the 
> seeming serious level of ignorance.  I am also surprised to encounter 
> a lot of young geeks who seem to have not a clue of how fast 
> technology is changing the world and  possess no positive vision (to 
> say the least).    It seems to be uncool to dream and seek to make the 
> dream real.
>
> - samantha
>
The SNR in the comments at Slashdot is so low that I rarely read the 
comments any more except on stories that really interest me. For 
discussions of intellectual property philosophy, Groklaw is far superior.

I personally prefer to use and contribute to GPLed software,  As a 
practical matter, GPLed software is cheaper because the the costs (in 
time and hassle) of license compliance are so much lower than with 
proprietary software. As a philosophical matter, I see the GPL as an 
enabler for a powerful collaborative system that generates high-quality 
software very efficiently and quickly. The Open Source community and its 
various sub-constituencies comprise an evolving collaborative 
intelligence that has a computer component. The computer component 
(Internet, email, CVS,and many development tools) currently contributes 
critical infrastructure, but is not yet doing any of the "thinking." 
This will change. As a trivial example, a team has now implemented 
automated regression tests for Linux: each time a new release happens, 
it is completely tested by the regression suite on many hardware 
platforms in a very short period of time. The concept is not new: almost 
none of the individual concepts are new. However, the bug-finding time 
for a large class of bugs has dropped to mere hours and the humans 
become more efficient.