summary: tools should be used
To summarize the long post below, here’s what I think’s going on:
- solving problems enables humans to survive as a species/culture
- to solve problems, we must: get & process data, choose actions, and implement solutions
- humans develop and use tools to do this
- a “successful” human (& culture) is good at doing 2 and 3
- to be good at 2 and 3, individuals and groups should have maximum:
a) access to data
b) access to tools
c) abilitity to use tools AND improve tools … as they wish.
Art, religion, roads and software, are all big-level tools to deal with big-level problems. Hammers, mp3s, openoffice.org, marriage contracts, and dynamite are all specific tools to solve specific problems.
Closed software, digital rights management, IP protections on life, closed scientific research, etc etc. all make us less able to solve problems because they:
- restrict our access to data, and
- prevent us from using, improving, developing tools as we wish
And with problems like climate change, peak oil, and maybe avian flu on the way, we can’t afford to restrict our ability to solve problems, for the short-term financial gain of a few companies.
Added to this should be an implicit (proven?) assumption that there is greater intelligence in crowds than in individuals. I’d like to cite sources but I don’t have any, though I remember a book by that name…
Comment by julien — March 25, 2006 @ 6:30 pm
i can lend you The Wisdom of Crowds if you like:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/
Comment by hugh — March 25, 2006 @ 6:44 pm