08 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Taxonomy of Email Chains
Family Pyramides
This family is named for the pyramid scheme structure common to all members of the family. Each specimen in this family will include a list of addresses of its last 4 to 10 hosts, and instructs the current host to alter this list by adding his or her address to this list and removing the oldest address from it. Hosts are also directed to send a small sum of money to each name on the list.
Family Petitiones
Members of this family are characterized by the additional behaviou... 1 
notes
notesFood for thought in considering a taxonomy of memes.
13 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
Information is the Power to Control
Information is a
part of all systems of power. Top bureaucrats try to control
information as part of their control over subordinates and clients.
Corporations try to control information through trade secrets
and patents. Militaries try to control information using the
rationale of “national security.” So-called freedom of information—
namely, public access to documents produced in
bureaucracies—is a threat to top bureaucrats.
In a society where not everyone can read and write, litera...
1 Where people can read, publish to media, and speak out against their employers, they have power.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
An Cosmic Virus
The Blight has been our top priority since its instantiation a year ago. This is not just because of the Blight’s obvious strength, the destruction and the deicides it has committed. We fear that all this is the lesser part of the Threat. There have been perversions almost as powerful in the recorded past. What truly.distinguishes this one is its stability. We see no evidence of internal evolution; in some ways it is less than a Power. It may never lose interest in controlling the High Beyo... 1 notes
notesThe danger in Vinge's book is the "Blight" an godlike intelligence that is all the more dangerous for the fact that it does not evolve, but is a rot that sets in and stays.
30 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
A Solid Prediction About Science from the Early 1900s
Man has mounted science, and is now run away with. I firmly believe that before many centuries more, science will be the master of men. The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control. Someday science may have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide, by blowing up the world. Not only shall we be able to cruise in space, but I'll be hanged if I see any reason why some future generation shouldn't walk off like a beetle with the world on ... 1 notes
notesHenry Brooks Adams predicts that human civilization will run away with science and it will consume everything in our society and contain the threat of our destruction.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
The Importance of Antitrust
...governments and communities have to establish and enforce strong antitrust laws--which is basically fighting any group that gets too large and usurps power. Antitrust fosters decentralization of power, whether from government or business hands. Right now, antitrust authorities are already cooperating across borders in a number of cases, including worldwide companies such as Microsoft and Beoing. But it's hard for any establishment--including governments-to enforce antitrust with enthusiasm... 1 notes
notesThe importance and difficulty of preventing any organization from becoming so large as to dominate the system.
