From IRC:
asciilifeform: Virtually everything that passes for ‘software’ in three+ decades is precisely this. Duct tape over hardware defects.i
bounce: Fixing that is going to be expensive though. Means rebuilding lots of stuff from the ground up. N’mind that the current tide is that of “Oh we’ll fix it in software nohow.”
mircea_popescu: Last I heard, the USG was throwing money into the street because “Gotta spend.” Since when is expensive a counterargument? What is this, the 80s and fucking Reagan ?
asciilifeform: Like every disagreement with physical reality, this one will make itself felt. And the harder derps run, the more painful the gravel in the face will be.
bounce: Nothing ended up here. Could use a bit of bezzle. Say, to build a harder-to-snoop phone.ii
asciilifeform: Not a money problem. The ‘fix’ is not available off the shelf.
mircea_popescu: See, people go “O, anything Obama does you hate him for it.” Yes, we do. and Bush too, and so on and so forth. Mysteriously, “everything” they do never includes a “We will spend one trillion dollars to fix our software-hardware. All of it.” Try that, see who hates you then. But no, they’ve tried “everything” : banged head on wall, sat on hot stove, kicked shin against all corners…. nothing in this house works. Worst house ever!
asciilifeform: No need for trillion. 10^7 would suffice – but it’d have to be spent on doubleplusungood crimethinkers, and that’s a no-go.iii
mircea_popescu: Fuck that shit. War on drugs, poverty, people far away that don’t like us and think we’re stupid… Shit, how about a war on bad software and hardware ? Unlike the foregoing, these AREN’T rules of the fucking world.
asciilifeform: They had one. Microshit won the contract. And we know the rest.
bounce: Don’t need a war either. Just bring together the means. Some bezzle, gather together the people that can do the block-building, ship’em off to shenzen, open-source the results.
asciilifeform: I shit thee not, MS Winblows is one of the two (afaik) NSA-approved OS. The other being a mystery meat by ‘Green Hills Corp.’
mircea_popescu: Not that dude. When they wanted to send a guy to the moon they didn’t give GM “the contract.” If they had, the Soviets would still be a thing, painting the moon red. BTW, know the moon painting joke ?iv
asciilifeform: Aye. Moon, incidentally, is trivial in comparison.
mircea_popescu: Yes, it is. but it didn’t USE TO BE. Do you know why ?
asciilifeform: ?
mircea_popescu: Fucking Kennedy. Once it’s done it’s trivial.v Before it’s done it can’t be done. Ask any virgin.
bounce: That’s some seriously ambitious necrophilia.
mircea_popescu: Lol My words! they has been taken out of context! and given unforeseen boners! But anyway, that’s why the entire “press” derped and occasionally still derps about Kennedy = US royalty. Because that guy was the last US president to go “Fuck you, do something useful with your time.” That is the royal superbity.
Quite right. It’s coming up on 51 years since John F. Kennedy was assassinated and exactly that long since the US had a Commander-in-Chief deserving of the title – a man who could be the strong shepherd his nation needed. Not that it mattered much, the seeds of US destruction were sewn by the north winning the Civil War and ushering in Big Government as a result. FDR just sealed the deal by making the federated states legally socialist in the 1930s, and therefore dooming the nation to fail as all other socialist regimes always and everywhere do, just as soon as the US’ natural wealth and post-war momentum wore off… Not that the closing act of America’s global relevance could be anything other than what we’re currently witnessing. This is why socialism is known as that painful transition between capitalism and capitalism, y’know? And doubly so at scale.
So here we find ourselves, watching the predictable lulz of yet another implementation of the same broken software. But why are the US’ lulz so predictable?vi Because history demonstrates that societal organizations work, or don’t work as the case may be, a lot like software, to which Paul Niquette so accurately details:
Software either works or it does not work. To be said to work, software must do what it is supposed to do. A specification determines what software is supposed to do — and by implication what software is not supposed to do. Software that does not work has not failed. It did not work in the first place. To be said to fail, software would have to work in the first place then not work in the second place. Software does not do that.
Software necessarily does the same thing in each sequence of cases — the right thing. If what the software does in a given sequence of cases complies with the specification, the software is said to work — for that sequence of cases. Not doing what it is supposed to do in a given sequence of cases does not mean the software has failed. Instead, it means software did not work in the first place.
Socialism most certainly predates Lenin and Marx – and undoubtedly even the “first” socialists, the Mazdakites of 5th century Persia – and yet it has never worked to provide the equitable utopia of fairness, niceness, and endless streams of free goodness its revolutionary adherents imagine. At least not for long.
Socialism fails every single fucking time. As such, as per Niquette, it cannot be said that socialism works in the first place, despite (or perhaps because of) its widespread attractiveness.
The hardware of society, the human flesh and blood, is obviously capable of working properly, or else we wouldn’t have babies. But working software, that which makes us human and that which separates us from the animals, is not infinitely diverse, and quite evidently precludes socialism.
No matter what the children say.
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- This is exactly why strong hands neither upgrade software nor use newer hardware.↩
- The recent “should the FBI have golden keys to mobile devices or not” shmozzle demonstrates how, just like with the LMO food “debate,” the digital security debate is similarly structured to confuse and ultimately sidestep the issue. With the existing infrastructure and available hardware, no phone, phablet, or otherwise will ever be anywhere near secure. Your best bet is still a laptop for reading logs, a camera for taking pictures, an iPod for listening to music and audiobooks, and a dummy phone for calls and texts. Yes, security is less convenient. Get used to it.↩
- Eg. Stan himself.↩
- The minister comes to the American president: Mister President, the Russians have already launched their spaceship!
President: Yes, yes, let them!
A few days later: Mister President, the Russians have already landed on the moon! President: Yes, yes, calm down!
In a week: Mister President, it’s the Russians, the started painting the moon red! President: That’s fine, just fine!
In a month: Mister President, the Russians have painted half the moon red, we’d better do something too!! President: No, no, don’t worry!
In two months: Mister President, the Russians have finished painting the moon, the whole moon is red now!! President: That’s great, now send our spaceship up there to write Coca-Cola on it!↩ - See… what Satoshi pulled off.↩
- Like the lulz of Ethereum being so predictable?↩