Hi All, So the decentralization list has gone a bit quiet for a few days ...
I am working on some math to try and batter Tony Kimball with, but since I got a few NeuroGrid developers through SourceForge I've been kind of busy and that will have to wait. In the meantime its early in the morning, 4:32am, I'm drunk, and I feel like expressing myself. I've had a lot of conversations with people about Freenet, about the child porn that may or may not be stored on a Freenet node that I may or may not chose to run on my own computer. I spoke to various people on the Freenet mailing lists about this and had some in depth arguments that forced me to re-assess many of my ideas. There are emotional issues here and I would hope to avoid a repeat of the antagonism of the discussions I had on Freenet Chat (although clearly I was asking for it - and maybe I'm asking for it again), but I was out drinking with some Japanese friends on Friday and we had a discussion that I thought worth repeating here. So my friend Shimogori-san had a point. When I pay my phone bill I'm potentially adding resources to that company who might use that for things I disapprove of. In Freenet I'm devoting some of my resources (i.e. some hard disk space and potentially some bandwidth), and fundamentally this is no different. I give the phone company some money to pay my phone bill. I give Freenet some disk space. No difference right? I don't stop using the phone company because somebody uses the phone for something I disapprove of, right? I mean, really I'm heavily in favour of free speech, but it seems to me that free speech is a different concept from free file-sharing. The idea of free speech is that I am free to express my opinion, not necessarily that I am free to disseminate photos of my boss with his mistress, or whatever. When I discussed this on the Freenet list, I encountered the opinion from some that the freedom to disseminate images was a fundamental part of the freedom of speech ideal. Of course we can't separate the two in Freenet since we can encode images as text, and since they are encrypted we can't tell the difference. Personally, I'm just not sure. Maybe I have the right to show images of whatever I like, but doesn't that potentially conflict with the right of the people who appear in those images, who may not want their image distributed? Basically I stopped running a Freenet node because I felt uncomfortable about the idea that child porn might be stored on my hard disk. Maybe I am just being crazy, but I felt uncomfortable. So then my friend Shimogori-san tells me that it's no different from using FedEx because child pornographers might use FedEx. Some of the people on the Freenet list said the same thing. Maybe they're right, but I thought and thought and it seems like the difference is that when I give money to FedEx that I am expecting services of equal value in return. When I run a Freenet node I am putting in some resources, but the value that I get in return is kind of unpredictable. I mean if I put my money in a bank and I find that that bank invests money in oppressive governments that I disapprove of then maybe I take my money (read resources) out of that bank and put it into another. It seems to be that there is a big difference between me investing money in something (like money in a bank, or disk space into Freenet) than when I pay for a service or goods, and expect equal value in return. If I'm getting equal value goods/services in return then I'm not contributing to any evil doings right? Maybe wrong, I mean I guess the other party is always going to try and wrangle some profit out of it. The odd conclusion that I come to, is that if Freenet had a currency mechanism like MojoNation, then I would be happier to invest resources because I would think that I was not necessarily giving over those resources to people who would do things I disapprove of, because I could ensure that I was not putting in more than I was taking out. Which ends up with me feeling rather confused. I thought that I had a clear approach. I don't want to devote resources of mine to those who do things I disapprove of, i.e. those people who don't respect the rights of other individuals, e.g. oppressive governments, child pornographers etc., but I end up being unsure about who I am helping by running a Freenet node, and it all seems somehow trivialized if at the end of the day all I am demanding is some capitalist accountability of my assets. Just trying to express myself, but having a difficult time of it. Anybody care to try and help me think this through? CHEERS> SAM _______________________________________________ Chat mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.freenetproject.org/mailman/listinfo/chat
