RipMixBurn

MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | Categories

Computers are very dumb machines (they are the smartest we have, but still they're dumb). There are many things they can not do, many things we have not explained to them.

About the only thing computers are any good at is RipMixBurn.

Rip: get it in to the computer in a editable form.

Mix: edit it. Mix it with other things, change the pitch, make it run backwards... whatever.

Burn: get it out of the computer in a transportable form.

(Although the words themselves are from a earlier time, when burning audio cd's where the fashion, they do have obtained a wider meaning. The words have become free from there original meanings; When the technologies of the time is abstracted away, what remains is still current.)

This is the battle cry of a the digital generation and it makes the InfoKeepers? of past generations very fearful because until now, they had control over who could copy, mix, or edit what, where and who got to be published (and who didn't). They decided who was remembered and who will never be known. They are the Masters of Tradition who are now opposed by hordes of unruly keyboard monkeys, bloging scholars, hungry pigs, and others...

Well, things change. They are kings of a lost empire: A control structure which has out lived its usefulness. They are made redundant.

Is this the SecondRenaissance??

During the first renaissance the InfoKeepers? was the RC church, they controlled the technology. Only because the service they provided was no longer required with the invention of the press did they become redundant. Only then it became clear how much control they had, and how they had used this power. The RC church tried to use politics and law to regain control like it did before... but it had escaped from her.

Now it's the record labels and other publishers who controlled the copier. They to are made redundant by technology. We see now what there control has brought us and what it has denied us. They to use politics and law to regain the upper hand.

This is the second renaissance.

(Who have most to gain? Who will become the InfoKeepers? of the next renaissance? Is it the isp's?)

Ref: [Lessig on FreeCulture]

RipMixBurn

Discussion