Why SOPA is really a battle of generations

Old ideas versus new ideas. At some point, certain types of technologies and ideas take over older standards and become the new status quo. This is what Schumpter called creative destruction, and this is what SOPA is all about.

People can, and will, knit-pick at the little details regarding this intellectual and cultural battle purely because that's the way the legal system works. In reality there is something much bigger at stake which is the future cultural standard of communications and entertainment. This war started long ago with the entity that was Napster. Piracy ran rampant with this p2p program, and the music industry wasn't happy. So they brought it down and for many years nothing really changed. People still pirated using all the other p2p programs that already existed or were produced to replace Napster. It wasn't until Apple really pushed the mp3 into the realms of digital publishing that it became a legitimate business model.

The problem at this time wasn't that piracy was easy, or preferred, or even really desired. There was simply no convenient alternative. Buying physical CDs and ripping them wasn't the most streamlined process. The power of digital media is that certain physical mediums are no longer necessary. They become obsolete. Why bother buying an actual CD when it will never be put into a player.

Even now the battle for the music realm is continuing. The main difference is how they compete within the digital realm. The battle has moved away from pirating vs. ripping to something like streaming vs. downloading. Markets speak and companies adapt. The ones that don't fail. CD sales are pretty much ignored nowadays. The main focus is on digital downloads.

SOPA is following along the same path that the whole Napster incident, but instead of mp3 it covers a much larger beast called media. Visual media also includes audio. More importantly, it is a central hub for all things creative, from visual art, to dance, to music, movies, sports, advertising, news, and pretty much anything else you can conceive of. Media has become the main source of communications in both the developed and developing worlds. What has changed in the recent decade is how media is consumed, and just like it did with music, there is a major paradigm shift towards digital media. The way the tides have changed it is undeniable that the old style of media is heading towards obsolescence.

No movie is filmed anymore. They are recorded. Music production requires computers. And TVs have lost their bunny ears for digital cables. Even the advertising world has shifted much of its attention towards the internet where more and more of peoples time is invested. Televised programs and movies will undoubtedly become webified as computers become increasingly pertinent, so much so that what we consider a TV is becoming more like a computer, only with a bigger screen.

The old way of doing things can only last so long before it becomes overtaken by the new ways. Nevertheless people resist. No industry or paradigm wants to die gracefully. They would rather go all out in a bloody brawl, guts and all. This is also a reflection of the old ways. Industries, institutions, administrations, nations, religions, ideologies all prefer to fight to stay alive, leaving many in the crossfire, rather than go out peacefully and know when their time is up. SOPA is not likely to live, and neither will old Hollywood. If by some chance the old regime manages to sneak this bill through it will not live through the backlash that will arise.

Once the war of traditional and digital media ends, the war between fossil fuels and renewable energy is still far from over.

Cleaning Up

Cleaning is such a pain. Why do we even have to bother with it? It would be great if there was a world where cleaning wasn't necessary to live your life, but I guess that's one of the prices we pay for building cities.

I've got some dishes to do, just cleaned the bathroom, and I should probably vacuum at some point before going to work. These things didn't always exist. People used to just eat in the wild and do their number one and two wherever they pleased. It was natural for this to happen and even completed the circle of life. Now everything is indoors, grease and grime don't belong anywhere, and we each have our own little self contained box. We have to keep these things clean otherwise we poison ourselves in our filth.

On the plus side, we get some privacy, disease rates are down, and we get cool magical things like electricity and invisible signals from around the world. It's probably because we have all these new activities to do that cleaning just seems to get in the way. I want to watching some culture breaking videos and help others create virtual worlds, but I gotta go clean the frakken dishes first! Argkk! I hate dishes..... When are we going to have some sort of awesome non-stick nanocoated dishes that become 99.9% germ free just by being awesome. One day.....