The dangers of an ownership-less society

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 04:59:00 +0000

After a long time, I’m back! And this time, it is about a seemingly random subject.

Sometimes I like to watch Louis Rossmann’s Youtube channel, a guy that owns a repair shop for electronics in New York. Most of this videos it is ranting about something, especially about Apple’s anti-competitivity practices, like locking down the software and hardware of their products to avoid third parties (like you, me and repair shops not associated with them) to change parts and make repair on it. It is a distasteful behaviour that should be condemned, but it is Apple, so clap clap, is magic! They can do everything they please, like pushing back against a law that prohibits US companies to contracts companies offshore that uses forced labor. Not a joke, they are against it! (the law, not the forced labor). Well, it is not about this today’s post, but surely it has to do about this: the amount of control that nowadays companies has and will have over the things you use or have purchased. And before you yell at me, no, I’m not against the march forward of technological advances, that it always have pros and drawbacks and it is almost always morally neutral (except facial recognition, this one has only drawbacks and it is immoral. I may write about this sometime). Anyway, one of the Rossmann’s video is exactly about the lost of ownership of physical thing we purchased (we don’t have ownership about virtual things, only licenses, at least legally speaking. It a fucking hell). The title is “YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY!”, a slogan from a World Economic Forum’s video about “how the world could change by 2030”, and it is so… dystopic? Ok, it is not prediction with solid bases, but it is a warning about what common people, and moreover, millionaires and billionaires that own the biggest companies today may think about the future. And if they are who thinking this, and they are who create the products and sell them, it is not hard to see that is not a innocent prediction, but a “I’ll make it be” prediction.

But what the fuck is an ownership-less society? Imagine a world where everything is a Uber-like service, pay when you use it. I know, plenty of things are already this ways, like the very own Uber, video and music streaming services, and the old-fashioned house rent (after all, everyone needs a home to live). So, at first glance, it doesn’t sound so bad, and I partially agree, why would I need an expensive car that I use once or twice in the week, or why would I spend time and money buying digital or physical movies if I only watch once, or why should I pay an insurmontable amount of money upfront if I just got a low-level job? And the list go on, it is very convenient, it is cheaper, it uses less of your free time. And although I use “ownership-less”, it is not really without any ownership (and have nothing to do with communism/socialist, on contrary, is overflowing capitalism and money), but instead of you having the possession and the use right, you will own only the use right – precisely, privilege – not the good (physical or digital) itself. So far, so good, but I wouldn’t be typing this article if it wasn’t to complain about something, right?

The Modern (Weeb) Book Burning [Update]

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 03:19:00 +0000

UPDATE:

GO FUCK YOURSELF AUSTRALIA!

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone. Let’s start with a… hmm… not so happy post (sorry). If you are a real weeb/otaku/smelly person, you may have paid attention to the following news (reproduced in a few pop culture outlets, like ANN or Nichiban): a Australian politician, tired of fighting kangoroos and gigantic spiders, gathered her energy, time and infinite knowledge to fight a evil and clever enemy.

Mangas.

I can imagine your disappointment reaction, but if you didn’t know about this, now you do. In a TL;DR version, she asked (demanded? threatened?) a major Japanese book seller in Sydney to remove some titles that reproduces (big quotes) “child exploitation”. As you expected, dumb politicians are in everywhere, but Australia likes to take the leader role. The reaction of many readers and fans were as you may expect, flooding her Twitter post in which she celebrates the removal from the store the “immoral” material with criticism, irony and indignation. Days later, the bookstore responded in a Twitter thread about why they removed, saying the titles (may) come back when the classification board approves it (or bans it, they can do that).

So, let’s dive in the characters of this story and understand what really happened, and what may happen.

censorship on ThoughtCrime

The dangers of an ownership-less society

The Modern (Weeb) Book Burning [Update]