Comment Re:Cheapening freedom (Score 1) 198
I have a different take on this. The computer is an extension of the mind in the same way that the hammer is an extension of the hand. If it develops in a way that restricts people, this means that it is restricting our collective thought. When governments and/or companies go around policing "functional" speech that exists in source code form, this is, in essence, policing thought. In our current state of consciousness, we may feel we need such policing, but it nevertheless is what it is.
IMO, this is what was meant by the theme that overcoming the Matrix will help to free humanity. For me, the Matrix represents technology not considered in the context of social or spiritual benefit to humans. For example, when people create technology to enhance their own profits regardless of the effect it has on other people, this gives form to the Matrix. By seeing computer technology from the perspective of a reflection of the mental thought and constructs accrued over thousands of years of evolution, we can start to overcome fears and doubts that have enslaved us thus far.
Furthermore, networking of computers can provide many useful reflections on the networking of people. If a computer is isolated human thought, the internet is social collective consciousness. If something either goes wrong, or causes harm to another group or individual, it's possible to see from where that impulse originated and try to integrate and transcend it.
So, software as a product can be a little more significant than diapers or toothpaste. It may not matter as much in those cases how you exercise your choice, but don't necessarily assume that software is a product like all others. If anything, the availability of the source code has heightened the awareness about the true nature of computer software. It is, after all, the source that counts. ;)
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds.
-Bob Marley
IMO, this is what was meant by the theme that overcoming the Matrix will help to free humanity. For me, the Matrix represents technology not considered in the context of social or spiritual benefit to humans. For example, when people create technology to enhance their own profits regardless of the effect it has on other people, this gives form to the Matrix. By seeing computer technology from the perspective of a reflection of the mental thought and constructs accrued over thousands of years of evolution, we can start to overcome fears and doubts that have enslaved us thus far.
Furthermore, networking of computers can provide many useful reflections on the networking of people. If a computer is isolated human thought, the internet is social collective consciousness. If something either goes wrong, or causes harm to another group or individual, it's possible to see from where that impulse originated and try to integrate and transcend it.
So, software as a product can be a little more significant than diapers or toothpaste. It may not matter as much in those cases how you exercise your choice, but don't necessarily assume that software is a product like all others. If anything, the availability of the source code has heightened the awareness about the true nature of computer software. It is, after all, the source that counts.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds.
-Bob Marley
