The Implications of Instant
Access to Information
S anta Cruz Future Salon
November 18, 2007
Andy Rondeau, Jeff Jones
Overview
• We are moving to a world where access to
information is perceivably free and accessed
instantly
• 20th Century consumerist economic models
of generating information are failing
• What kind of a world will exist when any item
of publicly-known information can be quickly
accessed for free?
Structure
We will discuss:
• Past
• Recent Present
• Future
In each period, we will
ask:
• How does one read
the latest literature?
• How does one hear
the latest composer?
• How does one learn
facts?
• Who owns inventions?
• Who controls genetic
information?
Past (Before the Printing
Press, Records, and DVDs)
• Monks copied the Bible in scriptoriums*,
each Bible worth $150,000 to $200,000**
• Either storytellers or Scribes
• Limited education; few people could read
to learn facts
• Music could only be performed, to hear
the latest music one had to be in the right
place at the right time
• There was more information then copying
capacity
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Past (Continued)
• Copyright wasn’t invented
• The Library of Alexandria
encouraged copying:
A story concerns how its collection grew so large: by decree of Ptolemy III of
Egypt, all visitors to the city were required to surrender all books, scrolls as
well as any form of written media in any language in their possession
which, according to Galen, were listed under the heading "books of the
ships"; these writings were then swiftly copied by official scribes.
Sometimes the copies were so precise that the originals were put into the
Library, and the copies were delivered to the unsuspecting previous
owners.[7]
• Piracy not economically
viable
Even during a period of a prospering book trade, during the Roman Empire, the
occurrence of piracy was unlikely. This is because books were, typically, copied by
literate slaves, who were expensive to buy and maintain. Because of this fact, any
pirate would have had to pay much the same expense as the original publisher,
effectively destroying any economic incentive for piracy.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Past (Continued)
"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive
property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an
individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the
moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and
the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is
that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it.
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening
mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the
moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems
to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made
them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density
at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical
being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then can
not, in nature, be a subject of property." - Thomas Jefferson, 1918
Recent Present (Consumable
Information)
• Books are accessible to, and later affordable
by, a person of ordinary means
• Libraries are convenient
• Recorded music and movies also accessible
and affordable to a person of ordinary means
• Copying capacity constrained:
– A person can not always afford all the books, CDs,
and DVDs that are desired
– It may be difficult or impossible to locate a copy
within a reasonable search effort
Patents & Copyrights
• Frivolous patents (Amazon)
• Length of time outdated, especially for
copyrights
• The nature of things being patented and
copyrighted has changed (books versus
software, virtual technologies)
Copyright Drove the era of
Consumable Information
Copyright is literally “a
right to copy”
Copyright is a technique
that evenly distributes
copying capacity among
information
The printing press brought the possibility of compensation for
literary labor. Very speedily, however, the unrestricted
rivalry of printers brought into existence competing and
unauthorized editions of various works, which diminished
prospects of any payment, or even entailed loss, for the
authors, editors, and printers of the original issue, and thus
discouraged further undertaking.
Consumable information is
any information
generated for profit by
sale to the general
public
Examples:
• Books
• DVDs
• CDs
• Encyclopedias
Non-consumable information
Information that is generated in a manner where
profit, compensation, ROI, ect, is NOT
realized through purchases by the general
public
Examples:
• Private reports owned by a corporation
• Academic papers
• Broadcast television (that isn’t sold as DVDs.)
The Future… What’s coming
down the pipe?
• Smart Google: It’ll be able to answer critical
questions
• iPods pre-packaged with all 20th century music
• Instant access to media; everything will be “ondemand”
• IPhone will become wearable, which will yield to
computing implanted in our consciousness
• Sending IMs within our consciousness yields to
telepathy?
• Present economic models of consumable information
will fail
So Let’s answer the Questions
• One can read the latest literature by having
one’s wearable instantly project it into the
eyeball
• One hears the latest composer by having
one’s wearable instantly play the composition
directly into the ears
• One “knows” all facts by simply asking the
wearable
• There will be more copying capacity then
creative information
It’s time for a short diversion:
Public information Verses
Private information?
Public information: The
creator can not choose
who are the recipients
• Free
– Library
– Web site
• Purchased
– Book
– CD
• Public Performance
Private information: The
creator chooses the
recipients who
voluntarily keep the
information secret
• Accessible by only a
small group of known
and trusted individuals
• Not for use by the
general public
• It is impossible to
pretend that public
information is private
How to hack any private
information to make it public
• Stick a video camera in
front of a TV
• Stick a microphone in
front of a speaker
• Copy a book by hiring a
typist
• Break an encryption key
• Write a computer
program that emulates
a “trusted” program
• Simply put: If it can be
seen, heard, or read, it
can be copied
• Likewise, bits are bits,
and it’s only a matter of
sweat and labor to
figure out how to
assemble bits into the
desired information
• Remember,
Shakespeare was
pirated!*
Thus, What are the
Implications?
• New Economic models will need to be
created for Consumable Information
– Donation / Tipping (Radiohead)
– Sponsorship (Like older composers)
– Psuedo-private (Treated as private for a short time
to allow patrons to gain first access)
– Expensive bits (web sites operate like the old 1900 numbers)
• Old Economic models may work in fringe
cases
– Souvenirs
– Special printings for fans
Continued…
• Wearable computers grant access any piece
of public information by simply thinking
• AI will be able to comprehend and summarize
• Possible threats to private attention as SPAM
projected into consciousness
• Wearable computers might incorporate
video/sound recording that capture
continuously
Beyond copyrights
• Strategies for encouraging software
innovation (other than copyrights)
– Academic model (reputation)
– Cosource
– Server-side applications
– Bundling software with the hardware
– Donations (radiohead, “shareware”, etc.)
Future of genetic information
• Ownership of genes
– Viruses, GM food and plants
– Attempt to patent humanzee
– Drug-gene distinction disappearing
– Patient rights (DNA sampling, privacy, etc.)
– Gattaca-style genetic screening