fragments given without pay to the hive

Because of this assignment, I'm checking up frequently on different technology blogs, and this article caught my attention.

A young bottle-nose dolphin was able to recognize and touch pictures on the screen to match objects he was shown. The researchers show the dolphin real objects (such as a ball, cube or plastic duck) then ask him to touch photos of the same objects on the screen. The dolphin is not being rewarded with food; he seems to want to interact with people. Researchers say that this is “an easy task for a dolphin, but it is a necessary building block towards our goal of a complete language interface between humans and dolphins.”

I wonder what the dolphins will say to us.

On to Chapter 4 ideas... Lanier moves on from discussing online identity and the changing role of technology to economic concerns for the future: what will money be?

He argues that free culture is causing disaster: degrading human expression. He claims music and newspaper-style reporting have already fallen into a “sorry state” and movies are on the same path. I'm not sure that the changes in the music industry and and news reporting are all bad. It is certainly different because there are more contributors and a greater quantity of media being produced (most of it mediocre at best). However, change isn't always bad. For the music industry, more people have the opportunity to showcase their talents (or lack thereof). This chance leads to more music, and although not all of it is good, there have been some really great discoveries.

I do agree with Lanier's ideas about advertising. Downloading and streaming have changed the way people get music. Unfortunately for musicians signed to major record labels, filesharing has led to a huge decrease in album sales. If you can get music for free, why pay for it? Overall, writers, musicians, and artists are “encouraged to treat the fruits of their intellects and imaginations as fragments to be given without pay to the hive mind.” Now, artists use the Internet for self-promotion, and they make money from other avenues: endorsement deals, concerts and merchandise. For unknown artists, they are often happy enough just to have fans and get their work out and into the hive.