[lbo-talk] distribution of hman activity, was Tower R

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

On 1/5/07, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> > I not only think about those things all the time, I spend a lot of my
> > life writing, broadcasting, and agitating about them. And I still
> > love my iPod. I just don't buy this argument at all.
>
> Yes. With the twist WS puts on it his argument is ridiculous. But after
> clearing away his sneer at the world, and putting it under some other
> heading than "opium for the masses," isn't there possibly here something
> worth exploring? We are dealing with the distribution of hman activity
> (time) under given historicsl conditions.

The Free Culture movement offers important insight on how tech can be
used to destroy community. For example, big media would love each
computer to have a virtual policeman watching how you consume
"content," and above all restrict how you share it.

Prof Lessig's work is impressive.
<http://www.lessig.org/blog/>

So speaking of iPods, right now Lessig's blog lists iTunes as a
commercial and "read-only" environment. Well, iTunes is the default
gatekeeper to iPods, and it's maybe worth being aware of that...

Tayssir