Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Brian H]

Rematog wrote: Brian,

There is a vast middle ground between so called “hyper-regulated” and being able to do anything you want.

We all are regulated to a greater or lesser degree. We all get a driver’s license in order to drive a car. That license places limits on how we drive.

So when I mention that, especially in the initial phase of deployment, NRC licensing may limit distributed use and require site security, this is a limit, not “attempting to kill” the technoloy. It is very possible (and I think, very likely) for focus fusion to be a massive success without it being used as you believe it should be.

This debate is starting to remind me of my one encounter with Scientology. They kept telling me “no, you don’t understand, you have to think this way…”

There are power issues here; FF will chop the ground out from under any number of long-dominant economic clusters. As far as regulation, I invite you to check out { http://jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail408.html#Iron } “Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy [which] states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.”

As with any other power base, the implicit survival-maximizing goal of maximizing influence and persistence takes over (fairly quickly) from ostensible purposes and efforts to deliver external benefits.

My hope and belief is that the depth and breadth of benefits FF offers will break that reflexive but potent opposition; my major uncertainty is whether this will happen “automatically”, or require heavy targeted advocacy and legal plus public relations plus political conflict.