Journal Murdoc's Journal: IP stops robots from working
In Hoboken, NJ vs. Giant Parking Robot we read where a dispute about the IP rights of the software of a major robot parking system has shut the system down, trapping the cars inside. This is a classic case of what I call PSIs, or "Price System Interferences". Here we see a dispute over "ownership" interfering with technology that is helping people, something that would not happen in a Technate (Technocratic society). Instead, the very concept of "property" is changed, so that only "personal" property would apply whereas "private" property would not. Anything having to do with the production or distribution of mass-produced goods and services can only be operated, used, performed, and/or consumed, no owned. E.g. the people in a factory would make it work, while the consumer collects the output and consumes it. Neither "own" the factory. This may seem weird, but is one of the fundamental paradigm changes necessary in order to function in a Post Scarcity society such as Technocracy. The quick example is of course, air, which no one really owns, because it is abundant. Air, while absolutely essential to human life, has no "value" in the economic sense because it is not abundant, and thus cannot be sold. Virtually everything in a Technate would be mass-produced (that could be anyway) in such a way as to be also considered "abundant" like air, and thus could not be sold. Thus an entirely new economic model is required, i.e. Technocracy.
Getting back on track, we can see how the outdated scarcity concept of "ownership" is interfering with the operation of a very Technocratic concept, robotic parking. PSIs like this are everywhere, and are constantly keeping us from realizing the very high standard of living that we could all be enjoying thanks to high-energy technology. Isn't it time we realized this and moved on?
In addition, it is interesting to note that the cars are trapped because there is no manual way to get them out. No doubt designing this in would have been expensive in both time and especially money. In the Technate, failures and shutdowns would be anticipated during the design phase, and constraints such as "budget" would not exist, thus allowing proper precautions to have been made in such a case. Money is, after all, the biggest PSI, artificially maintaining a state of scarcity where one need not exist. How many more things could be designed better were money "no object"? I'm sure there are a great many engineers out there that have devised perfect solutions to a problem, only to have them ravaged by the fiscal folks higher up. Come on, engineers, this is your time!
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IP stops robots from working
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