Sometimes when I stay up late doing something creative I end up getting this very comforting feeling about the future. A sort of certainty that everything will work out in the end and that luck happy coincidences will always be on my side. If I had this sort of confidence throughout the day, I would live a much more pleasant and...
How long do you hold the smoke in your lungs? Does it change depending on what sort of mechanism for smoking you use? Do you believe in the old adage, “if you don’t cough, you don’t get off”? Tell me about your breathing habits when smoking.
This would be a significant change to the intellectual property laws that govern most western countries currently. Not all algorithms are electronic in nature. For instance, manufacturers, stock trading firms, and banks may all use algorithms that are proprietary to perform manual or mechanical processes. Requiring these to be open sourced to the public would likely result in many trade secrets being leaked. There would also be a question of rather a recipe constitutes an algorithm as it really is just a set of processes at the end of the day. If so, Coca-Cola and a bunch of other countries are screwed.
Apart from the less obvious cases, there is also every software company in the world to consider. If they were forced to make their code public, we would see a lot of effects, some good and some considering, right away. To begin with, anyone would be able to compile and spin up any software at any time, making paid software a much less profitable business. Microsoft’s only customers in the software world would be the less tech savvy among us, and even then, they would be severely undercut by other companies as well as the neighborhood kid down the street who could volunteer to compile the OS code on your behalf for significantly less money. Specific INSTANCES of software, including the databases and information inside, as well as physical infrastructure would not be put at risk by this change, so the giants like Microsoft and Amazon would still be poised to win. However; they would have a lot more competition and would need to pivot away from software licensing as a business model all together.
Much more interesting to consider is the financial impact that such a change would have on society. I suspect the stocks for the major tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon would plummet. Apple in particular, who highly values secrecy and proprietary software, and who is not in the cloud computing business just yet, would be impacted more than anyone, as their closed down ecosystem would become a lot more open. If the law was passed in a particularly large market like the US or the EU, Apple and other tech companies would almost definitely sue that government, but the case would take years to resolve and would go to the highest level of the courts before being resolved. Open sourced code is technically still protected by copyright laws according to the terms of the open source license, so you would definitely see a lot of IP lawyers going after businesses for the slightest violation of those terms. You would also see a ton of trademark cases in response to people blatantly ripping off the Microsoft logo. The end result would probably be that their brand would get some limited protection from becoming all together irrelevant, but they would still be unable to stop individuals who are fully compliant with the open source license from downloading and compiling code themselves, severely cutting into Microsoft’s product.
Likely, these big software companies would then realize that they must move from a product based model to a service based model when it comes to software. I don’t care if you can see the code for Netflix’s sorting algorithms – that doesn’t necessarily mean you have access to their video content. Products like Microsoft Word would become valueless while Microsoft Teams would potentially skyrocket in value. Data and files in general would become highly prized by these tech giants as they would allow for content to be fed by their programs that distinguishes their instance of a service from the one you are running on your local machine.
However; this would ultimately not be enough to starve off the sudden loss of revenue from such a change. Consider less flashy examples like insurance companies and banks that have business rules hidden in their algorithms. If someone found out the “rules” to get an insurance claim approved by automated systems, they would surely take advantage of it. You would see a massive amount of insurance fraud, financial fraud, and just general chaos as the rules that have powered these institutions for the last 40 years or so suddenly became irrelevant. We would quite likely see a total collapse of the stock market, and at such a scale that governments would not be able to fix the problem. Of course, if the government passing this law gave companies more time to respond… Five years… A decade… Many of the problems could be mitigated, as could the impact. You might see a recession instead of a depression after implementation.
As far as what would happen afterwards? Open source would do what open source is supposed to do. It would point out the flaws in software, allow for creativity to bloom, and ultimately make the digital world a brighter, safer, more creative space. Innovation would bloom. Security algorithms would improve. People would be able to make more informed choices about where they do business. These learnings would come at a high cost for companies slow to respond to public comments on their Git repos. You would expect to hear about a lot more high-profile exploits and data leaks in the news. It might even cause an even deepening financial crisis similar to the one explored on “Mr. Robot” if, say, a major credit card processing company’s data was intercepted, or if financial loans for some of the world’s biggest financers were erased. However; new models would take the place of the old ones. The economy would eventually recover, and be rebuilt from the ashes on much more stable ground.
Or maybe Elliot would regret his decision and undo it. I don’t know. (spoilers ahead for those of you who still haven’t seen Mr. Robot)
Yes, there are many successful open source algorithms, so there is no reason to believe a content recommending algorithm that is open-source could not be successful. If you’re using Lemmy and you sort by “hot”, you are already using one…
I finally read “Old Man and the Sea”. I have tried to start it many times, but the beginning was just so slow. Has anyone here read it? What are your thoughts on this Ernest Hemingway classic?
We’ve heard about the normalized scams. Now let’s hear about the scams that are so completely obviously scams that it is a miracle that anybody would ever fall for them.
Your argument would be very convenient for socialists or communists looking for an explanation that blames war on the rich. Unfortunately I do believe it is a gross oversimplification that is neither useful nor particularly true.
While it is true that the military industrial complex has gotten out of control in many western countries since World War II, the argument that private industry is the true beneficiary and intentional instigator of war can be readily disproved. Rather, this assumption made by many on the left is born from a partial realization of the truth that war is about resources, but the argument quickly loses the plot thereafter. War is indeed about resources, both physical and psychological in nature, or put more succinctly, war is about security. Each state actor responds and reacts as necessary in order to ensure their legitimate security needs are met.
This view was famously espoused by political scientist Kenneth Waltz when he built upon the theories of classic realists such as Machiavelli. Whereas Classic Realism suggests that war is about power, Waltz takes it one step further with Structural Realism and gives us an academic framework to understand the balance of power and the motivation behind state actors. Waltz suggests that these power shifts are the result of states reacting to perceived threats in order to ensure security. For instance, in the Structural Realist view, one could say that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an attempt to gain security in response to a perceived NATO threat. Using this theory, we could similarly suggest that the US invasion of Afghanistan was a move to obtain greater security in a region that threatened the US hegemony (though the argument starts to break down here when we distinguish between the Taliban and Al Qaeda as neo-realism does not explain the action of non-state actors).
While it would be fair to say that in many western countries, the military industrial complex has acquired a massive amount of power and control over the government, it can hardly be said that war exists only for the benefit of war profiteers who help with nation building. The most obvious proof of this is the fact that war long pre-dates crony capitalism, nation building, and the military industrial complex as a whole. Furthermore, while lobbyists do hold an incredible amount of power, they are certainly not the rulers and final decision-makers of our country. Foreign policy is set by a number of diverse lawmakers and civil servants across the political landscape, but the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, which was opposed by the Military Industrial Complex, as well as the US intervention in Somalia which was wholly a humanitarian mission, are proof that they do not make the final decisions.
Our democracy certainly has many problems. Money pollutes our campaigns, and lobbyists hold far too much power. Trump’s five year lobbying ban for former US officials was a good start until he repealed it. We need more measures that limit lobbyists, and limit the ability of ANY politician or political party from totally derailing our country by putting us into unnecessary wars. We need more checks and balances in our system that prevent career politicians from fucking the rest of us over. And dammit, we definitely need to elect some better people than these jokers we’ve been electing lately. However; war is far more complex than you suggest.
Suppose you win 100 million. What do you actually do with it? Banks only guarantee 250,000. Do you have to invest it? Is there anywhere you can just let it sit and draw interest?
Pay off my debt, give 10 million to churches and charities of my choice, give a million to my parents and another million to my in-laws, give myself a million, and take the remaining 87 million and start a non-profit that aims to fight climate change and eradicate world hunger.
Russia has been a third world nation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Politicians just like to use the Russian boogeyman to scare people who remember the Cold War. Putin may be a monster, but China is the real threat.
With India on the rise as well I think we are transitioning into a pre-WW1 like multipolar balance of power which could slide into WW3. Safest option would be China and the US dominate everyone else and we get another Cold War, but we will see.
Russia is certainly a regional threat but countries invade and dominate other countries in their sphere of influence all the time. Russia does not have what it takes to dominate on a world stage like they did after World War 2. Their economy is weak, as is their military.
It’s all about money and power, mate. Not race. The US and the Soviet Union are both predominately Caucasian and they were at odds for the better part of the 20th Century. Race has nothing to do with it.
Maybe, but the housing crisis and shrinking population gives me pause. Not to mention I think there is more internal dissent in China than people like to talk about. China still hasn’t caught up to the US militarily and the gap is no longer closing in.
If there were a lot more conservatives or libertarians, the OP might not think there are a lot of communist posters here. Because there are a lot of left leaning people here who upvote anti-capitalist posts and comments, it is easy for the OP to reach the conclusion that there are a lot of communists. My three points explain 1) why the platform was already predisposed towards leftist thought in general, 2 and 3) why there is not a lot of right leaning ideas to balance out the ratio.
You've been instantly teleported two feet to the left. How does this affect you?
Can you drive a manual transmission?
And where are you from? And how old? Not “do you” but just if you know how....
How to retain my evening optimism?
Sometimes when I stay up late doing something creative I end up getting this very comforting feeling about the future. A sort of certainty that everything will work out in the end and that luck happy coincidences will always be on my side. If I had this sort of confidence throughout the day, I would live a much more pleasant and...
Do you believe in God?
Microsoft Brings Python Programming To Excel, Enabling Advanced Data Analysis (www.benzinga.com)
My wife didn’t understand why I got so excited reading this article.
Hold the smoke
How long do you hold the smoke in your lungs? Does it change depending on what sort of mechanism for smoking you use? Do you believe in the old adage, “if you don’t cough, you don’t get off”? Tell me about your breathing habits when smoking.
What would happen if a law was passed that said all content determined via algorithms had to be open source?
What is a hobby you enjoy, but seems too quirky or obscure to bring up in most conversations?
Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
Have you ever met someone who is able to deeply engage in conversation in a wholesome and detailed way?
Which of these ideas should I work on first?
Between these two pitches, which sounds more interesting?...
Old Man And The Sea
I finally read “Old Man and the Sea”. I have tried to start it many times, but the beginning was just so slow. Has anyone here read it? What are your thoughts on this Ernest Hemingway classic?
If you could go back in time and watch -- but not change or interact with -- one historical event, what would it be?
For the sake of the argument, you get to arrive up to 24 hours before the event starts and leave up to 24 hours after it ends.
What is a scam so obvious that everyone knows it's a scam?
We’ve heard about the normalized scams. Now let’s hear about the scams that are so completely obviously scams that it is a miracle that anybody would ever fall for them.
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US post-9/11 wars caused 4.5 million deaths, displaced 38-60 million people, study shows (geopoliticaleconomy.com)
Love my bugs like I like my .. (sh.itjust.works)
Do you send birthday whishes on the birthday of your friend's children?
Or do you have a rule, like only for very close friends or if you actually know their children…?
Victorian Megaship by Mitchell Stuart (cdna.artstation.com)
source...
What Do You Do With Large Amounts Of Money?
Suppose you win 100 million. What do you actually do with it? Banks only guarantee 250,000. Do you have to invest it? Is there anywhere you can just let it sit and draw interest?
A very dairy meme (lemmy.world)
China helping to arm Russia with helicopters, drones and metals (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Why are there so many commies on fed?