RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Unfolding Universe (discovery channel)

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Tue, 4 Jun 2002, "(8?»" wrote:

> Nope, by the time the need becomes apparent, we won't have enough time
> to respond.
>
> I'm basing this on the exact same reason why alternative energy is
> underutilized, it challenges the dominance of conventional supply,
> therefore it is suppressed.

OK, so which alternatives do you have in mind here?  And what the heck is
"the dominance of conventional supply" and what challenges have
alternative fuels posed to this?

> Just look at what the Du Pont family has done to hemp production. They
> have basically eliminated it as a rival product.

As a product rival to what?  Hemp is great for many things, but last I
heard it would be best used as a replacement/supplement for fiber used in
paper production and for use in some textiles.  I presume I'm missing
something here.

> A corporation will destroy an industry rather than migrate to new
> business models (the music industry comes to mind).

Yes and no.  Virtually *any* industry you can mention is resistant to
change at some level, pretty much because people are, too.  This music
industry you mention is particularly interesting because I will claim
there is no such thing, at least as a monolothic entity.  I think you mean
to be talking about the recording industry, and even there the situation
is not so clear.  Or, to put it another way, the recording industry in the
olden days (say 1996) could enforce intellectual property rights
essentially just by stamping their product onto CDs, which were desirable
to consumers, cheap to make, and difficult to copy with high enough
fidelity to really bother.  Once the last thing goes out the window, it's
not just possibly the beginning of the end the CD industry, but possibly
the beginning of the end of any business model where IP rights are
essentially trivial to assert.  This is an absolutely *huge* change, and
I'm not sure I understand what you thought the first course of action that
the recording industry would take.  For that matter, I think we all know
where this is going to end up eventually, and the answer is that there
won't be anything like the currently constructed recording industry left
standing.  In the end, they will have accomplished nothing.

> Just look at the fuel cell industry (which I don't claim to know much
> about). I do know that duh-bya is pushing for a system based on
> natural gas, since his boys are firmly entrenched in that market.

I'm at least as pissed off about government corruption as anybody else
(and that is the crux of this matter), but don't you think that somewhere,
somebody else who could give a fig about US energy policy is working on
fuel cell designs that will make a difference?  The problem with
conspiracies (as always) is that once they require some party to obviously
act against their own best interests, that party finds a way to cheat.

jking

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