Question One
What would Ayn have thought of open source stylings? What if the procedure of making Rearden Metal had been released Creative Commons?
Discuss.
Discuss.
posted by Summer at 10:56 AM
Summer and Andy read Atlas Shrugged parallelly. They post their opinions/thoughts and discuss them here.
posted by Summer at 10:56 AM
2 Comments:
I believe that Ayn would have been utterly perplexed by the concept of open-source material. Her protagonists' (Dagny, Rearden) drives are inextricably linked; Dagny does not run the best railroad in the world to advance the state of the industry. She advances the state of the industry to make money. Also, she does not make money to roll around in large piles of it; she makes money to advance the state of the railroad industry, which makes her more money. Rearden (with his metal) is the same way. The idea of Linux would simply not compute in her mind for a while. Then, of course, she'd think it was utterly stupid, and probably consider its creators more evil even than her own antagonists. After all, hobbling the industry with legislation is an act of weak men trying to ruin the strong, and therefore inconsequential (as weak men are parasites, ultimately beneath notice); one-upping the industry with a superior product and giving it away is an act of strong men using their powers for evil.
actually, i think ayn rand might be ok with open source. the reason why dagny and rearden wouldn't do such a things is that their goal is to make money through their inventions/abilities. however, that is not the only goal for the characters in the book. for example, richard halley, the composer, his goal is to make music as his way to celebrate human ingenuity. so the goal doesn't have to be solely monetary. and open source would be ok if the goal is to improve upon current technology. but i think the question really is, whether open source would be the best way to go, since it would not only benefit the good guys, but also people like jim taggart, or orren boyle? personally, i'm completely for open source. =)
kyle
http://holden94122.blogspot.com
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