Journal Journal: DMCA/PATRIOT/etc.
I've been formulating this theory, and a recent story (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/08/2156227&threshold=3&tid=134&tid=14) and a link in its comments (http://www.theintrovertzcoach.com/sirisaac.html) have solidified it somewhat. Caution: the following may contain religious material.
0. I'm coming from a Christian perspective; as it relates to the topic at hand, this means that I believe that humans were created to be free in a variety of senses of that word. I interpret this further to mean that anything done to interfere in a long-term and/or major way with that freedom is against the Creator's intent.
1. We hear a lot about things like the DMCA, copy protection schemes, DRM, etc. What do these boil down to? In keeping with point 0 (above), a major or long-term interference with freedom. (No, I'm not trying to say that God hates DRM writers. Stay with me here.) I'm thinking mostly of 1984-ish tendencies.
2. In the Bible (my Book of Choice (TM)), specifically in the book of Revelations, there's quite a bit about the 'end times' and such. Generally, it's all about things on earth getting to quite a messed-up point and God intervening in a final way and moving everything on into the eternity that He's had ready since forever. What about that 'messed-up' point?
3. Some other major interventions by God (as listed in the Bible): the Flood, kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, the incarnation of Christ. What sort of historical times did these interventions correspond to?
3a. Eden: 'all' (as the Bible tells it) of humankind had sinned and are now slaves to the knowledge they have gained.
3b. The Flood: 'all' (as the Bible tells it) of humankind have become wicked, with the exception of Noah.
3c. Christ: The Jews failed humankind repeatedly by not showing the glory of God to the world. They could have shown that God's way is freeing. So, Christ arrived to give them a 'last chance' per se. After that, His disciples took the story to the rest of the world themselves.
4. Common theme... human freedom violated. At what point does the next intervention arrive? Probably after all (or nearly all) humans are crying out to be saved from oppression. The DMCA and its implementation (along with other similar legislation) are steps in this direction. The RIAA suing anyone who purportedly downloads songs illegally is another step. Someone has been quoted a lot, because what they said is true, "He who trades freedom for security neither deserves nor receives either."
5. The recent
"... Newton was consumed by apocalyptic research and reluctantly predicted that the world would end in 2060." (see link at top)
6. We know that the technology is available to start giving people chip implants for banking/etc. It's not that the end times will be so obvious though. In most cases, everything will just be 'more of the same', where 'the same' is generally along the lines of point 1 (above). A 'minor' change will come about that people won't like all that much, and the people doing the changing will calm everyone down by explaining that the change is benificial in some esoteric way.
Sorry, I'm not making any outright predictions of my own.
