Piracy

Instead of just hating on SOPA and PIPA, can the tech community have a meeting of the minds and make valiant attempts at innovating a way to reduce piracy in a "free Internet" in the same vein that the legislators are attempting to do so with these bills?

It seems to me that everyone just dislikes the bill without really considering any other option. I heard vague statements from Wikipedia's founder on television and other vague disdain for the bill without stating exactly what is so bad about the bill other than it will bring down the free Internet or change it permanently. Censorship among other topics were the biggest concern with all of the black-out protests, but what will be censored. I don't really see how any speech will be censored. I only saw illegal content on the chopping block which seems reasonable, if you are one to adhere to the law. The only thing that I found particularly damning was the action against a company without due process and such. So, with that said, if certain parts were removed and or changed, would the tech industry support it? Is there any amount of legislation or more specifically stronger legislation that the industry would support?

Piracy is already against the law, so why is there seemingly a demand for a stronger law? Has the tech community really done enough to stave off piracy? Or has it essentially turned a blind eye to it so to speak and thusly deserved the SOPA bill fight on capitol hill because of its lackadaisical stances? I guess I feel that this bill wouldn't be on capitol hill if the tech industry had done its part to reduce piracy in coordination with the content creators who are drumming the support for stronger laws.

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"Playa Time: Dust to Dust" - Burning Man 2011 Time Lapse

Occupying Class Warfare

Here's my take on class warfare; it will continue to increase because the gamut of classes will continue to widen and the gap between the top quintile and bottom quintile will increase to unseen levels and so on and so on.

The interesting part is why. Unfairness? Probably not as much as the protesters would like to admit.

The bottom quintile performs the same type of jobs with no more specialization or skills required than before and they have received pay increases (albeit a small relative amount of about 1% per decade in addition to the 3% for inflation correction).

The top quintile experienced more opportunities to grow wealth by reinvesting their current wealth a la capitalism while simultaneously earning either a similarly small percentage increase over inflation in income or a much larger increase due to increased competition for their scarce talents and potential for talent growth.

The potential and almost exponential nature of talent growth has been where talent gained more income through greater specialization, adding completely novel skill sets, increasing experience involvement, undertaking more complex endeavors and with an increasing number of unique opportunities to grow their talents.

How?  It's all been courtesy of the rapid expansion and adoption of new technologies, expanding fields, and completely unique undertakings.

This has allowed for the gamut of income opportunity to expand with the highest quintile increasing the most while the lowest quintile increasing the least by sheer definition, not by unfairness. The range increases with a hard minimum which forces the maximum to skyrocket. The quintiles adjust accordingly like gas spectrometry and molecular weight. Everything has been chromatic with an actual low amount of volatility although with a seemingly high degree of perceived volatility.

I'm not anti-corporation, but I'm also not anti-labor. I'm pro-truth. If I can see more potential evidence that holds up better for the supposed mass atrocities of class warfare and that has been thoroughly diagnosed and stripped of the biases, then I will be much more likely to extend reasonable credibility to the multitude of theories including those that state that the high-income earners are stealing from the low-income earners. It's probably true to a certain degree, but I do not believe that it goes as far as everyone #OCW'ing seems to think. It's not an iceberg, it's more like a piece of flotsam here and there and at most a flotsam island.

If people want to protest Wall Street because workers on Wall Street are paid too much and so on, then I suggest that they make an honest attempt to go work for Wall Street. I have a feeling that if they gain successful employment in a job they hold contempt for now that the difficulty in the requirements for performing the job, the high number of skill sets, specialization, and education necessary, and so on will astound them to the degree that most of the protest fervor from a priori will simmer down reasonably so, but not all, and rightfully so. I just don't think the atrocities are as bad as they are made out to be.

#occupyeducation
#occupyintrospection
#occupyreality
#occupypragmatism
#occupytruth
#occupyanoccupation

Signed,
The Devil's Advocate's Devil's Advocate

3D Animations of a Venus Project city design

To Whom

If you could ask anyone in the world a question, what would it be and to whom?

This is akin to narrowing one's choices for three wishes to a hypothetical genie. I can't seem to begin to choose just one person and one question, but I'd probably start with a few very poignant yet deep and pertinent questions with stellar mind-body consciousnesses of the past and present.

I'd ask Jesus of Nazareth what it's like to be the son of G*d.

I'd ask the prophet Muḥammad ibn `Abdullah what it was like to ascend to heaven and meet the former prophets and G*d.

I'd ask Aristotle to wax philosophically on aesthetics and or logic.

I'd ask Siddhārtha Gautama what is the meaning of life, what are the greatest truths to know and follow, and how to find the path to enlightenment. I'd also ask him how it was for him to find his path to enlightenment. What were his trials and tribulations?

I'd also ask Frederich Nietzsche what his deepest feelings are about existentialism and why he had a mental breakdown towards the end of his life. Did it have anything to do with his modes of thought and paths of consciousness that he took in trying to uncover the truths of existence?

As you can see, I do not have a single question nor a single person to inquire. I'd have to take a long time to prepare before I could choose the one person and one question to ask.