The physics of private property was upset by the uber clonability of digitally etched electrochemical patterns, as now obviously valuable and useful assets could be duplicated with high fidelity, meaning pixel-perfectly and bit identically.
The physics before was: a valuable bauble, a gemstone, a geegaw, would be one of a kind and worth coveting, even stealing, and for the thief to gain possession, the victim would of necessity be deprived of the thing’s use.
But now a generous soul could distribute digital copies freely and western civilization was driven to its knees over how to do the books and make profit.
The FBI was called in, to put scary messages on children’s television. A campaign to scare kids silly was mounted through the schools. Rather than rethink the economics, given the boon of engineering advances, the bounty, the humans would be sacrificed, to the gods of making money.
Rather than adjust to the utopian possibilities, the choice was made to perpetuate the pre-existing squalor and postpone any reckoning with the “new magic”. Devices could be dumbed down, and the FBI would continue to scare people. Some were driven to suicide.
The loaves & fishes miracle was not welcome in the temples (meaning the banks), that much is clear.
The inability of capitalism to respond rationally to its good fortune is pretty damning if you ask me.
However the engineers who understood best about these powers did manage to free themselves from a lot of the dreck, creating a design science revolution of sorts, based on redesigned social contracts (I’m talking about the free open source movement, as documented in old movies like Revolution OS).
I watched all these developments unfold from my perch as an educator. I got called in, along with another guy, by a former FBI guy, a policeman, to help break the cycle of fear by teaching the kids of the Silicon Forest all about Linux.
You wouldn’t think the police would have to do that (teach Linux), but the school system had been completely co-opted by the capitalists, the ones who couldn’t wrap their heads around basic principles in engineering.
The police set up Linux Labs in the housing projects, on the model of Tux Labs in South Africa. The experiment seemed pretty successful from my vantage point, but then my part of it didn’t work out so well, is it would have meant kids coming to the police station itself for Linux training.
Some did, but not the “at risk” kids we were trying to attract.
Yes, I’m being vague on the details, but I’ve got this whole thing written up in detail in other places, such as on Medium and like that.
