Free Film projects
Related to the below (in my mind at least) is the idea of free film. That's "free" as in "colaborative, online, freely available" rather than just stuff you don't have to plonk down cash for.
There was a project called DustRunners (the domain is still there but the home page is gone) which made a load of media available under an Open License and let people use it in whatever way the choose. As far as I know no one did anything with it, but it set me to thinking about the similarities between this kind of thing, open source software and computer game mods.
For the less informed reader: Computer games have become very sophisticated software systems in recent years. It is, in fact, possible to replace the 3D models, textures and sounds in a game with creaions of your own. Many games also allow the player to modify the software to some (usually tightly controlled) extent. This has lead to the creaion of vast numbers of free games that require an existing game. These are called "mods".
I would like to suggest that the makers of these mods licence there models (and other material including scenario information) in a more open way in order to encourage people to start making films out of them. Obviously many mods don't lend themselves to being made into films but examples with a very extensive scenario and many models could serve as a backdrop to a film project.
Maybe more later...
Linkage Constructed by David Gentle on 02/29/04 13:14:09
a little bit of critique...
http://craphound.com/down/download.php
If you haven't already read Cory Doctorow's "Down and out in the magic kingdom" then I suggest that you do so. It's well written and interesting and William Gibson says he likes it. If that isn't enough (which it should be) it's also free as in beer as well.
As much as I liked it I do have a couple of objections to some of the premise and I'm going to write about them here without worrying too much about spoilers. Beware...
In the book it is assumed that if we develop the ability to upload and download personas people will make the leap from thinking of themselves as a particular body to thinking of themselves as a set of data that can be copied into a new body without the resulting human being someone else. Some people will disagree with this world view but they will die and eventually everyone will believe the central principal.
So, okay, I've got a backup of my "self" on a computer and I get run down in a car accident. Assuming that my old body dies, the medics install my backup (and we're assuming that backups are always perfect and that no one ever tampers with them) into a clone of me and "I" keep going. But what if there's a mixup and the original doesn't die. It's clear that there would be two of me. Which one is me? If the second is me then how can the first one be me any more? This is also the primary objection to the teleporters of Star Trek. The novel doesn't answer this objection in any way. Of course, it might be considered pretty "Bitchun" for there to actually be two of you around. What if you wanted to only hang out with people of a like mind or were working on a project where the only person who had the right skillset to complete it was you? Why not just make a load of copies of yourself? Like say...300? Or a thousand or a million? Surely that's something that would inevitably happen (and maybe pretty quickly) in the Bitchun society but the book makes no mention of it.
Secondly there's the issue of the non bitchun types just dieing away. While it's true that their personas won't be carried on, they do have the ability to breed and pass on their ideas to their offspring. When they die they'll be replaced by others, some of whom may tend towards being Bitchun themselves but many of whom won't buy into the idea. And it is a pretty strange idea. At any given time there are always plenty of people who believe insane and provably false nonsense but they're not often the majority. I think a more likely outcome would be that the minorty who actually believe the central notion will adopt it wholesale and the majority will take out the equivelant of "clone insurance" as suggested by Walter Jon Williams in "Voice of the Whirlwind". A minority (probably those who can't afford it and religous objectors) will not subscribe at all. Actually, what about those religous extremists? Wouldn't there be a danger of them suicide bombing the location where the backups are stored? Wouldn't that kind of undermine the Bitchun society?
Thirdly the idea of replacing the economy with Whuffie is the most original and least likely idea to happen. In fact, I'm not sure how "Bitchun" it would actually be. Couldn't the system be hacked? If there are no governments or organisations other than adhocs what's to stop a particular adhoc from trying to only think great thoughts about their friends? Or hacking their own interface in such a way that it had the same effect? You can make a similar argument about the global economy but in that case there are governments who will step in (with force if necessary) and sort things out. Where are the forces that would make it happen with Whuffie? What about pranksters who want to hack their interface so that they only give out good or bad whuffie scores or no score at all? Or people who meditate?
Also, consider a person who has basically no whuffie at all. Consider that this person may have considerable technical expertise (certainly if their memory extends back for some time). What's to stop them hacking a runabout so that they can use it without whuffie? No sytem is unhackable. If they have no whuffie and no way of getting any more why wouldn't they do something like that? In fact, what's to stop a load of people from doing this to all services? I can imagine lots of people deciding that they hate the system and making a load of things available without the need for whuffie.
Maybe I'm missing something.
Don't let these criticisms give you the impression that I didn't like the book, I wouldn't be taking the time to make these points if I didn't like it. I just have some concerns about the premise. If you accept the various core ideas then it's really interesting and worth reading, even if you don't.
Linkage Constructed by David Gentle on 02/27/04 15:50:21
Sun
