This is what I think:<br><br><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11845161/MalFuncto.mp3">BlahBlahBlah</a><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 8:03 AM, John Hopkins <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jhopkins@tech-no-mad.net">jhopkins@tech-no-mad.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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advancing this: a paired statement and question: i dislike software<br>
patents, and, would ios be as consistent as it is without them, or to<br>
generalize, without the autocratic enforcements?<br>
supporting that: as re: gnome / aqua: and paraphrasing with real<br>
trepidation, ezra pound: wouldn't gnome be yet "better" if someone<br>
handed it a fistful of money?<br>
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ANY technology is the (optimized) application of a protocol on a range of energized material. A reproducible technology which is inter-operable (with itself) has to have (on a sliding scale) a more rigorous set of protocols that guide its use. This, by nature, restricts the use to within the definitions of that protocol. The more open the system, the more potential for evolution, for change, and in that same way, for failure (to do a defined task). Technology is about (human) control of pathways of energy flow through the world we are part of. Tighter control means being able to take huge energies 'out there' and direct them precisely where one likes (think about owning (or even building) an amplifier!). Less control allows for more noise in the system which can give rise to interesting and unforeseen possibility, but it can also, in the case of an amplifier, shred your speakers, overheat, and burn down your house.<br>
<br>
In any technological deployment there is an explicit struggle between control and freedom. (think 'o-ring' on the shuttle booster rocket!) More control requires more overall energy input into the system. (This is simple thermodynamics -- which is not an optional concept, "it's the LAW.") With infinite energy supplies, one can completely control a system and that system will not fail in its task. Obviously this is impossible, so we have to make do with something less than perfect control. But to make a device that can be deployed widely across a huge range of environmental conditions and have it so that it fails infrequently, one has to exert intense control over the production process, all of the way.<br>
<br>
That's why military systems are triple-redundant, for example. When needing to launch a chunk of lead across a space and into another human's body who is attempting to do the same thing at the same second at you, you don't want your technological support system to fail. You would not want the manufacturer of that weapon system to have employees who were smoking pot the day your weapon was rolling off the assembly line! Thus the idea of wide-scaled social engineering to ensure that command-and-control systems are in place throughout the supply chain.<br>
<br>
Apple, as a techno-social system within a wider techno-social system, is no different than any other techno-social system in these issues. (nation-states, military organizations, manufacturing entities, corporations, clans, whatever)<br>
<br>
Just a few reflections prompted by the somewhat facile comments here on the list regarding a human passing, and how that human's presence affected other humans across the planet. More can be found below...<br>
<br>
cheers,<br>
JH<br>
<br>
for example -- <a href="http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/2657" target="_blank">http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/<u></u>archives/2657</a><br>
or <a href="http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/2390" target="_blank">http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/<u></u>archives/2390</a><br>
or <a href="http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/2014" target="_blank">http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/<u></u>archives/2014</a><br>
or <a href="http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/2008" target="_blank">http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/<u></u>archives/2008</a><br>
or just <a href="http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/tag/technology" target="_blank">http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/<u></u>archives/tag/technology</a><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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