The world is ideas is a dangerous place.
I got an e-mail from a guy today asking me to assist him with an idea that, well meaning, was not well thought out. I've coppied his e-mail below and my response.
Hey man!
I saw your post on the forum topic for a charitable internet. I am actually trying to build this entity and I am looking for leaders and artists to help make this dream a reality. I think that the world would be much better off if the major internet media entities donated their profits to charity. There are a number of new problems that have arisen due to the desperation to make money, of internet websites. These include compatibility issues, lower security requirements so that people can upload cookies into your browser, privacy issues, not to mention the ways that people of all backgrounds are depicted to play on our most basic human instincts, driving us further apart, instead of closer together and all for money.
Now I love the controversial media as much as anyone. At the same I believe when artists focus on provacative ways to make the world a better place that the world of media will reach greater hieghts. I also believe that this path will lead them in that direction without preaching. I am all about free speech I just want people to be inspired to work for the greater good.
I understand that the internet is not now the cash cow that I believe that it soon will be. People need to feel secure with the transactions that they are making online. I also fear that when these systems become more secure, and efficient that even more jobs will be lost, and many Americans feel richous turning a blind eye to people that suffer. As the economy becomes more automated, fewer jobs will be available. Soon people around the world will be competing with machines, and slaves for jobs. There is such baligarant ignorance preached by the major media enties, creeping fascism in the US, I am really concerned about the direction of the country. I want to give the people the power to choose their own direction, and invest in the technologies that they believe will make the world a better place, without concern of profit. I want to be part of the answer. I want to inspire the people to demand technologies that will produce virtually unlmited free food and housing. China and Japan are already investing in these areas, I don't think that we can afford to fall behind in these pursuits because recent technologies have made these dreams an inevitable reality.
This is all deep and philosphical, and I am not asking anyone to be like me. I just want everyone to have as much fun, and happiness as possible. I think that this is a dream that people around the world would embrace. There has been as much interest from people overseas in this project, as there have been people here, so I really believe that this could be a world uniting cause. There are many people who believe that economics is the key to world peace. That if we trade, and do business together that we will not want to fight with one another.
Hopefully you will feel inspired to chat a bit more, and possibly join the effort. When we are successful you will be happy you made the decision that you did. I also believe that their will be a place in history for the greatest contributors. I can tell that you like to think. I like to think too. We have a great team of possitive thinkers put together at this point. I hope that you will feel inspired to join the team.
Have fun!
Tony Purdom
www.youmanity.com
The following is my response:
The internet is the greatest invention in all of human history. As the printing press braught the printed word to the illiterate masses of humanity it dawned a new era of knowledge and inlightenment never before seen in all of civilization; The Renisance, so too does the Internet bring knowledge INSTANTLY to every corner of the earth. The printing companies that braught first the bible, followed by millions of other works, to the Great Unwashed did so NOT because they were knowingly invested in some lofty pursuit of knowledge, but because they could turn a profit. They needed to feed their families and they did so through paper, ink, glue, and binding which were formed into books and sold to whoever could afford them.
This new age, the dawn of the modern renisance is in its infancy but it is coming, and fast. There will be a day, in our lifetimes, when a doctor can instantly diagnose your illness because he can tap into a digital database housing all medical knowledge. There will be a day, in our lifetimes, when a child can learn to read before he steps foot in a kindergarden through e-learning. When we are gone, the internet will benefit humanity in ways we can not even dream of; nevermind the movies we watch, the websites we browse, or the funny pictures we look at - humanity will literally become to us what we are to the ancient cave man - a civilization capable of limitless potential and awe-inspiring accomplishments. This will come about because TODAY, a company can sell a product ; be it media or physical, on a digital network requiring servers, web developers, IT professionals, security systems, and an army of artists, businessmen, and academics and turn a profit - a HUGE profit - that snowballs into an even MORE complex array of requirments and technology pushing the boundries, EVERY DAY, of human limitation.
The internet is the venue through which the ruthlessly oppressed Chinese worker learns about the concept of American organized labor and learns to fight for the freedom and equality he is entitled to. The internet is the venue through which an African at risk of contracting AIDS, learns about how that disease is transmitted and how to avoid it. The internet is the venue through which a South American learns about the corruption in his countries government and becomes an agent of change for the better. While we sit and surf myspace forums, engage in e-love, and laugh at Lolcats, the internet is changing the world by bringing knowledge to the ignorant. It is ABLE to do this because the same server housing free medical help, free history lessons, or free news coverage is paid for, in part, by a company that needs that server to house it's 900 hours of Ghost Hunters or 72,000 hours of anime... and it is paid for because that company can turn a profit... but it certainly isn't easy and there are many hurdles.
What you seek to acomplish isn't some lofty dream of diverting a little internet profit toward charity for the betterment of humanity. What you seek to accomlish is nothing short of the strangling of the infant internet in its crib. If a company can't use internet based media to turn a profit, than that company will LEAVE the business of internet-based media... and, eventually, there's no incentive to pay for a server or pay a web developer or IT professional or anyone with experience in technology to build and maintain the internet. And, eventually the greatest achievement of mankind sufocates and dies.
You have no right to lay claim to the products of another mans labor no matter what your cause is. Millions of men and women, just like me, contribute to the internet in a wide range of creative and intelectual ways. We are able to do so, and make a living doing so, because the companies we work for see the internet as a venue for bringing their product to customers and bringing their customers to them; a digital arena in which to compete JUST as commercial venues compete in your neighborhood. Their profits, which you want to divert to charity, pay MY sallary and the sallary of millions of people arround the world. The companies we work for make profits and compete in a commercial world that is NO different that the physcial world we live in except it is faster, bigger, and ever changing - but JUST as compeditive... and we work HARD to provide internet based prducts that people are willing to pay for and NO ONE has a right to the SWEAT and BLOOD that I, and millions like me, shed in pursuit of carving a niche within this new digital era... and THROUGH our sweat and blood, as we toil day in and day out keeping ahead of technology, staying secure, learning about the next trend, wanting nothing more than to feed our families and pay our mortgages and maybe take a vacation once a year it is *WE* who are forging the destiny of humanity. It is *WE* who bringing in the new dawn of human enlightenment. It is *WE*who are crafting the next age of enlightenment. It is *WE* who cary that torch, not some obscure group with a heart of gold but no understanding of basic economics.
I appreciate you contacting me in regard to this issue but I must decline. The unfortunate truth is, although you may have the most admerable of intentions, your method for achieving this "dream" is nothing short of the blackest evil that one person can inflict upon another short of rape or murder. What's more, your movement is as to humanity as the barbarians were to Rome; the unenlightened hordes raging ignorantly against the greatest bastion of civilization for nothing more than their own minute and unworthy cause.
I hope I've helped to open your eyes to the profound wrongness of your intentions and I cincerely hope you fail at what you seek to accomplish.
Mark
