by pilferage » Sat 24 Sep 2005, 02:30:40
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'I')ncreasing efficiency comes at a price; it creates even more entropy.
I think you're missing nero's point. We're very inefficient because the current system benefits the few who control certain aspects of it. From the standpoint of social power, it's beneficial for them to encourage inefficiency because they profit personally from it. They're efficiently acruing social power at the expense of other efficiencies (so to speak).
We currently have ~300mpg cars, nearly self sufficient homes, and (to address a specific point you made) very cheap computing solutions. Why aren't we seeing them? Because they don't encourage consumption, and consumption is where companies earn profit.
Lets say I have a five person household, and want to create a very cheap and responsive system for everyone to use (with each person having individual access to computing applications). I can go out and drop ~$3-4k on new individual computers for each person, and a wired (or wireless) routing setup, install windows... etc....
Or, I can spend a fraction of that and use old hardware/ buy what I need to put together to run five thin clients connected to a router which is connected to a nice new fast machine with a couple 160gig hd's all using linux (specifically freenx).
Using less resources (and resuing old machines), a person can have a nice, stable, content controlled home network that is cheaper, more reliable, and most likely faster than anything new, offered by corporations. Now why isn't this breakthrough getting more publicity? Corporations, governments, and average Joe's could save huge sums of money (and resources). But that's not good for business, inefficiency is.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8342
Different applications of different technologies can result in much more efficient usage of the same resources. Sure, there aren't free lunches, but we're lining up at the buffet table when we only need a bowl of rice and glass of water... We can do much better.
P.s. I'm going to give my mom an old 450mhz P3 I have lying around. It's really responsive with
Jackass!, but with freenx, she should be able to use dialup to log into my 2.8ghz P4 and have all the benefits my Jackass! system offers. Like cable internet, a faster system, and more storage space. We'll see how it turns out.
"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. "