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	<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; Tech</title>
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	<itunes:author>World Socialist Party (US)</itunes:author>
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		<title>ACTA of Desperation</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2012/03/acta-of-desperation/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2012/03/acta-of-desperation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:28:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2508</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the more memorable jokes in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was the one about the supercomputer which, on being asked the meaning of life, supplied the answer ‘42’. One of capitalism’s most profound illogicalities is its constant need to render unquantifiable things – like knowledge &#8211; in monetary terms so that its beancounters can do their sums properly. It’s the same joke, only accountants don’t get the laughs. NASA is pulling out of its agreement with the European Space Agency over the planned ExoMars Rover programme, citing lack of funds. It has already ceased supplying the International Space Station. Given that the ISS is the most expensive thing ever to have been built by human beings, this seems rather like spoiling the spaceship for a ha’porth of tar, but there’s a slump on and the purse-strings are being pulled tight. Science is worth the money, says Barack Obama’s budget, as long as it’s somebody else’s money. The price of knowledge is being addressed in a different way by the recent signing by 22 countries of ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which is the latest international attempt to establish base-line rules for protecting intellectual property rights (IPR). [...]


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		<title>Zeitgeist &#8211; The Machine inside the Ghost</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/02/zeitgeist-the-machine-inside-the-ghost/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/02/zeitgeist-the-machine-inside-the-ghost/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:18:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1253</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Enthusiasm continues apace for the online movie-cum-movement phenomenon Zeitgeist, with its articulate, clean-cut and photogenic presenter Peter Joseph touring even harder than Bob Dylan, it seems, to bring word to the world about the ‘resource-based economy’ idea which sounds so new to everyone else and so uncannily like socialism to us. Socialists should applaud and encourage the efforts of Peter Joseph and Zeitgeist activists everywhere to popularise the ideas of non-market production for use, especially because anti-socialists everywhere will do their best to discredit them with any damn-fool argument they can think of. That’s not to say that there aren’t issues of disagreement, of course. There is a strange emphasis on the technological aspects of the case for a post-capitalist future and proportionally little to say on the role of human activity and decision-making. It’s clear from recent lectures by Peter Joseph (‘Where are we now?’ et al, 2009, YouTube), that far from being merely a matter of emphasis, this bespeaks a quite different perspective on history: “I think it is safe to say &#8230; Technology is the fundamental catalyst for progress and change. It is by far the primary factor driving the development of human civilisation not only in [...]


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		<title>Taken to the cleaners</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/02/taken-to-the-cleaners/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/02/taken-to-the-cleaners/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:04:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1249</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A non-toxic spray invisible to the human eye that protects almost any surface against dirt and bacteria. The spray is a form of &#8220;liquid glass&#8221; and is harmless to living things and the wider environment. It is being touted as one of the most important, environmentally-friendly products to emerge from the field of nanotechnology, which deals in objects at the molecular end of the size scale.Tests have revealed an astonishing variety of potential uses for the liquid glass, from protecting vineyards against fungal attacks to coating medical implants with non-stick, antibacterial surfaces. The &#8220;easy-clean&#8221; properties of the liquid glass could lead to drastic cuts in the amount of potentially toxic cleaning agents used in factories, offices, schools, hospitals and the home, as well as cutting the costs of labour and the amount of time spent scrubbing surfaces. &#8220;Many UK supermarkets are unwilling to stock the technology as many of the other cleaning products which they sell will become redundant. This is also the case with some major cleaning companies who are scared of having to clean less frequently and to change from using cleaning chemicals to using water in most instances,&#8221; Mr McClelland told The Independent. Ah , and now [...]


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		<title>Patents: Capitalism vs Technological Advance</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2007/04/patents-capitalism-vs-technological-advance/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2007/04/patents-capitalism-vs-technological-advance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2007 03:17:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=230</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Capitalism has been widely celebrated for its capacity for rapid technological advance. Thus Marx in the Communist Manifesto of 1848: “The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production.” A century later Joseph Schumpeter declared that “creative destruction” is “the essential fact about capitalism” (Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942). And surely this fact has never been truer than it is today, in the age of microelectronics and bioengineering? The technological dynamism of capitalism is undeniable, especially in comparison with earlier historical formations. This, however, is only half the story. The functioning of capitalism also entails the shelving or suppression of many useful inventions. One common cause of neglect is the limited purchasing power of those who stand to beneﬁt from some discovery, as in the case of drugs to treat tropical diseases (see “Nonproﬁt Production: Wave of the Future?” in last month’s issue). Another key factor behind the non-use of inventions is the patents system. A patent is a legally protected exclusive right to use a new product or process, valid for a ﬁxed period of time (typically 20-25 years). Patent rights supposedly belong to “inventors” and promote technological advance by giving inventors a substantial material interest in [...]


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		<title>Free Software and Socialism</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2007/04/free-software-and-socialism/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2007/04/free-software-and-socialism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Apr 2007 05:08:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Socialism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=198</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The law treats physical property and intellectual property (IP), much the same despite the fact that IP requires practically no labour to reproduce and does not spoil or wear out. The primary purpose of laws preventing people from copying music, software, literature, and other information, then, is to effect an artificial scarcity which helps secure profits for IP owners. Independent software developers, angry with the restrictions imposed by commercial IP owners, began to voluntarily license their software copyrights under terms which guaranteed that the software would always be free for others to use, study, copy, and modify. Since most new software is created by refining and combining existing pieces of software, this licensing scheme essentially returned control of the means of production of software to the community. The Free Software licensing scheme has since been popularised and adapted to other forms of IP, most notably artwork and literature. A case in point is Wikipedia, a large online encyclopaedia which is collaboratively edited by thousands of volunteers from all over the world. The facts that editors contribute voluntarily and without compensation, and that the project operates in a largely democratic fashion without a government, serve to refute the common anti-socialist argument [...]


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		<title>President Bush signs the order to militarize space</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2006/10/president-bush-signs-the-order-to-militarize-space/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2006/10/president-bush-signs-the-order-to-militarize-space/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:21:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[USA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=201</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In signing the recent executive order creating a new National Space Policy, President Bush has announced that the US will reject future arms-control agreements that might limit US military manoeuvrability in space. The document further announces that the US “will preserve its rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space &#8230; and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to US national interests.&#8221; “Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power,” the policy declares and that to “increase knowledge, discovery, economic prosperity, and to enhance the national security, the United States must have robust, effective, and efficient space capabilities.” One wonders why the US fears other countries may have “hostile” intentions in the use of their space capabilities. Clearly the answer has to be because this is exactly what the US is itself intent on using space for. What else was Clinton’s Star Wars programme all about? The White House, however, insists that the new policy does not refer to the development or deployment of weapons in space. Indeed, in those sections of the policy made widely available recently, there is no explicit reference to the militarization [...]


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		<title>Trouble at the Fourth International</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2005/07/trouble-at-the-fourth-international/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2005/07/trouble-at-the-fourth-international/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jul 2005 04:59:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPCanada</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=88</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last year, the Trotskyist online newspaper World Socialist Web Site, or WSWS (no relation to us and the World Socialist Movement), published a press release and an open letter to the Madrid based magazine Amanecer del Nuevo Siglo accusing them of translating and reprinting WSWS articles without their permission [10,8]. The charge was compounded by the allegation that the Spanish magazine had deliberately misrepresented the source of the articles either by attributing them to their own editorial staff and writers or by removing the byline altogether. The WSWS staff was understandably surprised and upset at this unsanctioned reproduction, but more surprising still were the threats and capitalist tinged language contained in their accusations. Terms such as “piracy” and “stealing” were used to describe the actions of the Amanecer, implying that the unauthorized copying of political literature is the equivalent attacking a ship, looting its cargo, and kidnapping or killing the people onboard. The WSWS claims its articles enjoy special status as “protected literary works”, as if to imply that copyright laws exist to prevent their articles from destruction or damage by malicious third parties. While the SPC does not condone the Amanecer’s actions, it is clear from the WSWS’s reaction [...]


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