CulturalNgineer's comments

Characteristics of the Monied "Like" Button http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2013/12/characteristics...

One-Click Micropayment Capability for Volume Solicitations and Multiple Providers http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-click-micro...

Represented by Perkins Coie

An (e.g.) 1/2 cent payment connected to the current Like button (whether it was credited to the likee or something else) would stop the Facebook Fraud problem by making them non-viable for clickfarms.. and still not seriously impact the original button's usability?

for instance a user could designate a charity recipient for his likes

Characteristics of the Monied "Like" Button http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2013/12/characteristics...

One-Click Micropayment Capability for Volume Solicitations and Multiple Providers http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-click-micro...

If you could BUY a download or certain number of plays of the song for a nickel or a few cents (one-click and without transaction costs making it impractical)...

Would you?

patent issued... demo built and tested... its called a pooled-user-determined account which forms the root for an internet wallet.

I'm a terrible entrepreneur but despite that the concept seems to be making progress... especially for its potential in lobbying.

Patents are important protections designed to protect the hard work of individuals from the onslaught of more powerful forces... I've got one myself (a utility patent)

THIS IS NOT THE CASE HERE!

This is more akin to privatizing the alphabet...

Not exactly a great way to stimulate civilization's advance.

If Blodget really bilked money from widows and orphans (and I don't doubt it) how come he's not running a bank? Seems like the perfect item for the resume.

Maybe he's just pissed-off because he was the sacrificial lamb for a lot of other widow-and-orphan-bilkers and wants to make his amends by bringing his old friends to some sort of reckoning?

It really is all just security theater... keeping the peanut gallery scared, entertained... and at the same time self-satisfied about their unearned 'exceptionalism'...

BTW, has it occurred to anyone that someone intending a terrorist act could just blow up a carry-on before ever getting to the ridiculous scanner...

It'll shut down the airport for sure... and do it at a couple of airports simultaneously and you'll shut down the whole network for a day or two...

Stop letting government treat us like childish idiots... yes... things could happen... reasonable precautions should be taken. But this isn't a smart approach.

RE "The Internet Might Kill Us All"

Good read, good points, reasonable possibilities... but a bit hyperbolic.

Looking on the bright side...

Scenarios depicted could end in massive death and destruction...

But wouldn't kill us all.

Not much consolation, but at least leaves some hope for a later and better iteration...

Though it might take another few thousand years to get back to facing the problem again.

Check the following totally misleading article put out by the Corporate front "Ameripac":

FCC: Information Superhighway Traffic Cops http://conservativeactionalerts.com/blog_post/show/2120

This looks to be a campaign intentionally designed to confuse with the goal of restricting a truly free Internet in order to benefit big money interests.

Frankly I've had more than enough of mega-corporations corrupting good governance.

The benefits of Facebook marketing for the song and artists is a good question... lots of interesting answers here.

But how about Facebook's end? Doesn't seem to me they were going to get much out of it either way?

SO how much revenue did Facebook receive on this event?

Not so sure I'd be buying a Facebook IPO... of course, being broke I won't have to deal with the question.

The Internet is a landscape... not a business.

Speech, association, politics, mutual assistance (charity), etc... are transactions between humans that pre-date the commercial transaction.

The first ICT was perhaps a bird call constructed out of a leaf made by a hunter to notify his mates of where the prey was…

And the first journalism was Ooga running into camp and announcing she’d just seen the first spring sprout on a favorite berry bush.

And if the message was false, misleading or dangerous… the onus certainly didn’t fall upon the air through which the information was transmitted!

There was no gatekeeper, no intermediary…

ICT AND JOURNALISM were BOTH strictly peer-to-peer.

The same could be said for politics and charity within the hunter-gatherer world... peer-to-peer.

The commercial transaction (and the creation of money, trade tokens, etc) arose with the need for interaction within or between larger or multiple 'social organisms'... an important and needed development.

At its root, a civilization (or any social organism) is a product of individual and group decisions (ideas+actions) operating within the confines of the physical environment and natural law.

Money was developed originally as a technology for the allocation of excess social energy where complexity (and loss of various forms of proximity) required conventions beyond the less formalized methods of a hunter-gatherer group.

I believe this suggest some re-thinking about the nature of money and capital (and capital creation) but that's another story...

The point here is that the nature of this "social energy" in a scaled organism requires that the exchange of this energy NOT be bound by transaction costs or other complications (like carrier censorship) IN AREAS RELATED TO COMMONS-DEDICATED FUNCTIONS ESPECIALLY...

These particular areas of exchange actually pre-date the need for or existence of the commercial transaction and require special attention.

This problem (which extends also into the political participation sphere especially) is directly linked to neglected scaling issues in this new landscape... and the capabilities required for Commons-oriented transactions in that space... and why that requires a viable, simple and secure MICRO-transaction.

A needed institution for a pragmatic approach to solution:

The Commons-dedicated Account Network:

A self-supporting , Commons-owned neutral network of accounts for both political and charitable monetary contribution... which for fundamental reasons of scale must allow a viable micro-transaction* (think x-box points for action in the Commons).

(I note that journalism is often a for-profit enterprise and that this presents a complicating factor. I believe this is an addressable issue.)

Re-Igniting the Enlightenment: On Building Landscapes for Decision http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2010/12/re-igniting-enl...

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/culturalengineer

I also suggest that such a distributed account network should own and maintain its own cloud and bank(s)... giving it a certain independence and resilience.

*Re the potentials of the networked political microtransaction:

"A full 90 members of Congress who voted to bailout Wall Street in 2008 failed to support financial reform reining in the banks that drove our economy off a cliff. But when you examine campaign contribution data, it's really no surprise that these particular lawmakers voted to mortgage our economic future to Big Finance: This election cycle, they've raked in over $48.8 million from the financial establishment." ("Crony Capitalism: Wall Street's Favorite Politicians", Zach Carter, ourfuture.org)

I don't like the way money is controlling politics either. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire...

$48.8 million? It's disgusting how these special interests can network their money!

$48.8 million is less than 35 cents per registered voter... It's just a matter of implementing the technologies to harvest other sides of the debate..

Most people NEVER give to a cause or campaign. It's a hassle and unless you're giving substantial bucks you feel pretty impotent anyway.

It doesn't need to be that way. Its just a matter of catalyzing the network.

From google's blog: Governments shouldn’t have a monopoly on Internet governance http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/governments-shouldnt-...

Just trying out ideas!

There are points worth considering on both sides regarding file sharing and copyright.

However this censorship action is being taken in the name of 'homeland security'... I find this a very disturbing trend and wonder how this community feels about that.

Could be good idea!

I'll try to get around to looking into it tomorrow...

There must be many factors that go into 'what makes a good entrepreneur'... and many fallacies as well.

I'm 60. My background is neither in entrepreneurship, business nor computer technology... but rather a strange combination of cultural anthropology and the arts.

A few years ago, out of my interest in cultural evolution I came up with a simple idea... an easy way to think of it is as similar to x-box points but instead of for games... its for political/charitable contribution... (small money, large numbers and immediate feedback as a response to "Citizen's United decision... is more powerful than might at first seem apparent).

(Anyway, patent has been just granted for the method. If anyone's interested there's a demo at http://www.Chagora.com which was all I could afford to get built.)

My only point here is that whether its because of age or lack of experience or the fact that neither political party wants anything changed I've been unable to get any interest at all from entities I'd have believe would at least have a few questions.

Of course it could be just a dumb idea... but I don't think so considering the feedback I'm finally starting to get. But it took a patent before anyone would pay any attention to a 60 year-old, non-techie old hippie... (and bankruptcy, foreclosure and credit ruin).

Sorry for the slight rant but its been a tough 4 years.

Here's a vote for David Brin's novel "Earth"... full of amazingly prescient ideas regarding the social effects of communication technology, transparency... and especially his Helvetian War* as part of the backstory, though presented as metaphor... it's beginning to look entirely too possible!

* A 'financial war' when transparency results in the world population finding out that a lot of crooks have a lot of the world's wealth!

Nope, not inaccurate at all. We're also 'excreters', 'respirators' and metabolizers generally.

The document discussed here and the word 'citizen' refer to a conscious sense of responsibility to and for the "Commons" in addition to oneself.

This is, of course, why I favor a rational solution to our undocumented resident issues. This involves BOTH a more secure system... but also a path to CITIZENSHIP for those here.

The 'elites' of BOTH the LEFT and RIGHT, each for their own reasons have encouraged a lax approach to the issue of labor... and thereby have degraded both the role of work and of citizenship.

Being a CITIZEN is about taking back that power over and responsibility for... the Commons.

And so now American workers and Undocumented people who've been given a very mixed message are pitted against one another.

Degrading the role of citizenship for everyone.

Ask yourself who benefits from this division?

On a similar note:

I'd like to see an effort to eliminate the word "consumers" from our leaders lexicons.

Cows are consumers... Hogs are consumers...

Consumers are commodities that are fattened until they're slaughtered!

Words have significance on both conscious and subliminal levels.

Beware a government AND a corporate elite that has come to think of you as a 'consumer'... a 'subject'.

'Citizens' are a nuisance!

Jefferson, Franklin and Adams knew that words were important.

Personal Democracy: Disruption as an Enlightenment Essential http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2010/06/personal-democr...

The lesson here is how co-ordinated messaging (propaganda) can continually shape and re-shape broad cultural memes no matter how stupid the memes are.

While in the case of diamonds it's a matter of wasting money, encouraging inane consumerism and odious environmental practices for the sake of a few wealthy oligarchs...

When the same thing happens in politics...

It encourages meaningless consumerism and odious environmental practices for the sake of a few wealthy oligarchs.

The Lesson: Distrust messages from oligarchs.

Car insurance and home insurance are relatives of 'derivatives' but are much different than the "naked" derivatives and CDO Squared instruments (2nd generation derivatives naked or otherwise).

While you're right about his error regarding the 'computer-driven' aspect as it relates to these instruments... it's a big part of the problem in flash trading and front-running to game the system.

Perhaps you'd like to take some interest in the real functions of investment.

Might be worthwhile to also investigate issues of credit-creation bias and how that's been working-out.

Free Enterprise isn't about who can be most creative in developing the most ridiculous gambling methods and disguising them as 'financial innovation'.

In overall thrust Mr. Ebert's piece is on the money... at least what there is left of it for regular folks.

Adam Smith is a good source.

Our paranoid idiot government (or, more accurately, "our paranoid idiot government that believes we're also paranoid idiots just like them)...

has given the idiot terrorists all the tools they need to completely bankrupt us while obliterating our rights.

All they need to do is find another idiot to blow up his underwear in a movie theater and then we can have scanners there too!

And then another idiot can do the same in a Wal-mart or whatever... and more scanners!

What idiot is in control of THIS game?

Note to investment advisors: Invest in idiots! They seem to be having a great run!

Satire for sure...

But the link to PayPal is real enough!

I wonder if they've taken in any money? And if so, did the people think they were supporting this nutty idea or supporting satire?