I,For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords

15 Replies to “I,For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords”

1. uhuh.
   aaaaaaaaaand the judge deemed it al acceptable since the copyright rests with only the digital version only one in existence now.
   sooooooooooooo what happens when SINister forces hack the online version and FOREVER change the OFFICIAL version of history?
   and then there’s THIS little tidbit; seems the ‘cloud’ folks handling the smithsonian’s catalog stayed silent right up until the bitter end.
   https://www.reddit.com/r/smithsonian/comments/1oen3b9/smithsonian_online_virtual_archives_empty/
   mebbe they were thinkin clam up and fix the finances without spilling the beans on themselves and making things worse? whatever.

2. Poverty is our strength.
   Artificially generated scarcity.

3. The people making these decisions are passionless. You or I might really appreciate a low production 1969 GT500 Convertible Shelby Mustang and painstakingly restore it to its orginal condition. In our minds, it is a piece of history that might hold past memories. Maybe it’s a car you always wanted because you just thought it was wonderful.

   The Bezos crew and his like would see it as a business opportunity. Restore it, and how much can I get for it. Or, more likely, it’s not worth the effort after figuring out the overall time and cost.

   There’s a lot of hyperbole (mostly envy driven) at Billionaires. A good deal of the criticizing is born out of ignorance. BUT, there are times (such as this) where they seem souless.

   1. The people making these decisions are passionless.

      Orson, with respect, I disagree.

      They seem laser focused on destroying the past.

   2. Agreed. These are the guys Mark was thinking about.

      For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

4. AI will take the … “ 1969 GT500 Convertible Shelby Mustang and painstakingly restore it” … to a mangled jumble of its original engineering … then declare it was one of the ugliest, planet-killing, death traps ever created by mankind.

   Yeah … that’s what a politically-corrected AI restoration would do.

5. Doing shitty things on purpose is evil.
   Doing evil things to make money when you already have more than can be imagined, is walking hand in hand with the Anti-Christ.
   And believe me, I’m not religious.

   1. Agreed Buddy

6. Right-wing curmudgeons persist in their war against the 21st century. A lot of people were outraged by Gutenberg’s infernal contraption too.

   The Abbott of Sponheim led the charge:

   “The printed book is made of paper and, like paper, will quickly disappear. But the scribe writes on parchment and his work will last.”

   (Ironically, he had his treatise printed to distribute it widely.)

7. The legal decision that enabled this is prima facie faulty. Every printed book has as part of its copyright notice that scanning the book into any electronic storage/retrieval system is illegal without the express written consent of the publisher.

   1. I could stand corrected, but, if they are gathering old books in the “public domain”. then it is game on, and no ones’ consent is required.
      EG, I could own a Gutenberg Bible and decide to scan it, then destroy it.
      What then?
      Besides, the library of Alexandria was destroyed ages ago, and who misses those missives?
      Ray Bradbury worried about what the masses don’t care about.
      I go to the library each week and feel unique as one roaming the books.

8. Have they processed Farenheit 451 yet?

   I am a bibliophile and disapprove of this activity. Why doesn’t Amazon resell them?

   1. “Why doesn’t Amazon resell them?”

      Because some moron judge gave them this loophole, that’s why.

      It’s “legal” to scan the copy of the book you bought so long as you don’t sell the copy.

      Big AI has interpreted this to mean shredding the physical copy makes it legal. Even when that’s the only copy of it still in the world. They -could- non-destructively scan the books, but thanks to one idiot in one court decision it’s better to trash them.

      This sort of thing is why it’s a bad idea to allow activist judges to make new law.

9. If Winnie the Pooh and Steamboat Mickey can be made into serial killers, why no expiration for books?

10. Seems as though barbarians would do something like this.
    Remember the cries about book burning?
    While this is not the same it is barbaric.
    Being rich does not save you from being one.
    Remember this whole deal is electronic, once a disaster happens in those data centers a lot of the stuff will be gone.
    Puff. Gone for ever.