From kragen@dnaco.net Mon Aug 10 14:40:39 1998
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 14:40:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Kragen <kragen@dnaco.net>
To: "Nathlich, James R. (JNAT)" <JNAT@chevron.com>
cc: rebecalist@bossanova.com
Subject: RE: Evolution (was: the truth behind the amazon buying spree)
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On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, Nathlich, James R. (JNAT) wrote:
> 	[J.] To misquote something I heard recently.. "It's not a
> revolution unless it involves automatic weapons".  The 'power base' may
> be shifting to infomation, but the change is glacial/evolutionary/ain't
> gonna surprise Nobody.  The futurists have been predicting this since
> Naisbitt decided that 'futurist' paid better than 'bad science fiction
> writer'.    

The power base is already information.  In fact, it has been since at
least the time Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War.  To win a war, you need
only two things:
- to know everything about the enemy;
- to be completely unknown to the enemy.

Capital is almost irrelevant, except insofar as it helps these two aims
-- and it does.

> > There will be no change for the better, just change. The simple fact
> > is
> > that most people need to be led, and will allow themselves to be, no
> > matter what the nature of the regime.
> 	[J.]  Platitude.  Philosophy makes my head hurt this early in
> the week.  If there isn't any such thing as 'change for the better',
> then I'm just not sure it's worth it to chew through the straps in the
> morning, ya know?  

I think you're responding to a post that says, "There will be no change
for the better," not, "There is no such thing as change for the
better."

> 	[J.]  Ah, the open source software... official Buzzword of
> August.

OK, on behalf of the open-source (tm) community, I plead guilty to
overhyping.

>  Seems like a good theory, but will it go anywhere?

Well, that would be a reasonable question if it were a new, untested
idea.  But (as open-source hypesters are fond of pointing out) the
Internet is built almost entirely out of open-source (tm) software.

> I get visions of Mac, Unix and Peet's coffee running the
> world, except for a band of renegades out of Seattle singing
> angst-ridden songs, getting high on 'bucks, and pushing the cause of
> this weird little 'Windows' operating system.

Heh.  :)

Yeah, lots of people use Linux because they hate Microsoft.  Lots of
others use it because it does the job better, or because they hate
proprietary software.

Kragen