Commons

[garote]

An interesting treatise. The early points are shaky, but eventually the authors get both feet up on the soapbox and find their collective voice.

I agree that it is a matter of time before humans must universally accept some system of "family planning" that discourages families from having more than two biological children. ... But presently I can't imagine what disastrous events would have to occur, to make people consider an over-breeding problem with humans in the same terms they would consider an over-breeding problem with cats: Where the only solution is to physically restrain them, against their will, from bearing additional children.

And say one nation adopts it, while a neighbor refuses -- and then an illegal immigration problem develops, when their standards of living diverge ... This is an argument strong enough to trigger a world war. When millions die in that conflict, what will the victors do? The population has, after all, declined by the killing. Why uphold your restricted breeding program, and deny yourself children, when you can instead kill a foreign devil, and make more room?

I honestly don't know what anyone can do to alter this situation. We'll be fighting elbow-to-elbow, shedding blood for arable land, until the very last day when the Earth bursts into flame and goes tumbling into the sun.

It's disappointing to see human nature, to look at my own two hands and know that I personally am part of our collective undoing. But if a single lifetime must end -- must stop well within the bounds of infinite time just like it began -- why not the same for the whole damned human race? Yes, the idea is fatalistic -- but so what? We don't need to be eternal as gods, we just need to do our best as humans.

... And failure at that, we have no excuse for.

Comments

[ex-zeugma416.livejournal.com]

I always forget how much Henry Miller I was reading in those days, and then I run across one of these old letters, and the influence is painfully obvious.

As it happens, the typewriter I used to write that paragraph a decade ago is now languishing in the trunk of my car. Three weeks ago I got it out of the storage unit so I could legibly fill out a tax form -- same ribbon! They really do last forever! Now I just have to return it to storage. I've probably procrastinated enough by now.

[garote]

Believe it or not, we had an electric typewriter stuck in the back seat of the Accord for most of this month. Tried to sell it, but the proprietor of the local typewriter shop turned up his nose. Hoo-hah!

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

"to look at my own two hands and know that I personally am part of our collective undoing."
A lovely sentiment ... but we must beware of self-deprecation; we are capable of working against entrpy, of showing and actualizing affection, of being productive. Self-loathing is poisonous.

BTW1: thanks for bringing http://dieoff.org/ to light! You know, just yesterday I came across this anecdote: Garrett Hardin says he now realizes he should have called his essay "The Tragedy of the Inmanaged Commons" ... degredation is not inevitable or unavoidable.

BTW2: how come http://www.armory.com/~garrett/ has paragraph markers but no paragraph breaks ... one huge slab of text is hard to read!

regards

WhooHoo!

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Found it! A great excuse to introduce you to Dan Bricklin (The guy invented the spreadsheet!)
http://www.bricklin.com/cornucopia.htm

BTW: "Tragedy of the Commons Re-stated (http://dieoff.org/page109.htm)"

[garote]

I produced that page when the internet, and I, were both less concerned about readability, and more concerned about making some sort of artistic statement. For all intents and purposes, my "real" web presence it at http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

"less concerned about readability, and more concerned about making some sort of artistic statement."
Ahhh, k ... yes, it does have an artistic integrity.

http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/ ... right ... odd that I don't have a page like that.
OMG! I just remembered the index.html in my first account ... http://chebucto.ca/~ab006/ is all that remains of it ... oh wow, what a flashback!

BTW "A proof-of-concept online regenerating HTML game last altered in 1999" is 404 ... a couple of my favorite/oldest pages are super dusty now ... kinda leave them as historical documents.

[garote]

http://chebucto.ca/~ab006/ : Wow, someone actually making artistic use out of the <HR> tag - you don't see that much any more ;)

[garote]

That lousy HTML game ... I had big plans for that .. perhaps I should attempt to document my meager progress and post an explanation there...

Re: WhooHoo!

[garote]

http://www.bricklin.com/cornucopia.htm : A nice piece about why public databases grow, but unfortunately, it can't really apply to the tragedy of the commons -- databases exist in that alternate universe of digital media, where infinite copies and transmissions are possible, regardless of the content of data ... and even with a P2P network, use of the tool does not actually guarantee a concomitant increase or refinement of the database. There are countless ways to exploit the network and get what you want without contributing anything.

The real-world commons is a different situation at the outset: Finite resources.

"Tragedy of the Commons Re-stated" : A good supplement to the original. It's pleasing to see someone include "tragic" elements of capitalism and democracy in the analysis.

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

haaaaaaaa!

<=== used <blink> a total of once in 11 years

:-)

cheers

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Do!

"Battle Master" is the best HTML (i.e. "browser-based") game I found. I think RESTful techniques have lots of potential ... that's how I hope to implement uhhhhhhhhhhh "my project". I love Flash, and some Java stuff amazes me, but ...

Re: WhooHoo!

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

At this point (I'm 51) I've pretty well consolidated my core beliefs; I'm more motivated to implement than I am to ponder ... 'cept for things buddhist/psychological.