The National Consciousness can enable the Totality to promote political, economic and social changes and reforms through their State. The digital realm is capable of providing the necessary vehicle in which such changes and reforms could be achieved within an acceptable timeframe. To bring the State of Total Mobilization to the digital realm–the Noösphere, as it beckons to be called–is to develop the means by which Life-Energy can be converted into Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld before transmuting them into Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld. The digital infrastructure controlled and maintained by the Council State is only half of the National Intranet. The other half concerns the computer hardware and computer software responsible for facilitating access and executing operations on the National Intranet.
Computer Software and Property Rights
To begin, computer hardware and other electronics should be considered as a finished product created in the Manufacturing Sector, distributed to the Services Sector and then sold in the Retail Industry. Barring the transactional sales themselves, which only yield Actual Geld, the related production processes count as Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld as part of the LER Process. Computer software, meanwhile, demands a different understanding that warrants its applicable to the LERE Process as opposed to the LER Process.
Computer software, in the contexts of Production for Profit and Production for Utility, was often treated as either a product or a service. In the former, the software developer created copies of the software for people to buy and install on their own PCs. By purchasing a copy of the software, they technically had ownership of the software. The latter has become more prevalent since the 2010s as it is now commonplace to pay a subscription to the software on a monthly basis in order to continuing usage, hence its relation to Production for Utility. Compared to the Production for Profit version, the Production for Utility one does not encourage any conceivable ownership of the software. Once somebody decides to stop paying Kapital to continue ‘utilizing’ the software, they no longer have access to it.
The fundamental difference between computer software in those two Modes of Production and the Work-Standard’s Production for Dasein should be pertaining to how the Council State treats the source codes of various computer software as “Intellectual Properties-as-Power.” Computer software is executed on a source code that programmers had compiled in a programming language, allowing anyone operating the software to run the program and its applications. The source code, since it falls squarely between “Productive Property-as-Power” and “Personal Property-as-Power,” has the potential to either become capable of creating Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld or not.
How does the Work-Standard articulate Intellectual Property? Intellectual Properties are the results of the intellect, drawn from the ether of the Noösphere and brought to life on the National Intranet. Somebody conjured up an idea or concept about something which could benefit the Totality and themselves and they realized it as Intellectual Property. While they technically own the Intellectual Property as Personal Property, that does not necessarily mean their Intellectual Property has no potentiality of becoming Productive Property for the Totality and State to create Arbeit and Geld with. The Prussian or Hegelian solution posited in The Third Place (1st Ed.) was for computer programmers to develop software as Personal Property and issue copies of the software as Productive Property under a “Production License.”
To be more precise, the concept of Intellectual Property-as-Power should still be applicable to the qualifications of “Closed Source” and “Open Source.” Those qualifications are what will determine whether Production Licenses are needed for specific software once they are ready for downloading on the National Intranet.
Open Source Software denotes computer software that the original author has allowed the Totality to own, operate, study, distribute, and alter the source code as it becomes relevant to them. By being given access to the source code, the Totality will receive the ability to contribute to the software by repurposing it based on the Relevance and Reference. This falls neatly into the paradigm surrounding Production for Dasein because it assumes that there is a Readiness-to-Hand Arbeit (Digital Arbeit in this context), which in turn provides the State Commissariats with an idea about the Value of Digital Arbeit and its Price in Digital Geld.
Closed Source Software, contrast, is computer software that original author is willing to give to the Totality for their own purposes under a specified set of constraints. For instance, the Totality is forbidden from making alterations to the source codes or developing derivatives of the software with it. The justification for this is to ensure that computer software will be protected behind a Technical Patent so as to deter Industrial Espionage. In Production for Dasein, the Council State provides Patents to those interested in registering their Intellectual Properties-as-Power and facilitating the issuances of Production Licenses. The purpose of those arrangements is for the original authors to retain ownership and request the Totality to respect the original Intent behind them creating the software. Aside from charging people to buy Production Licenses for access to the source codes, the Council State could also restrict access based on Profession, Social Rank, and Nationality.
In Production for Dasein, we can expect the Council State allowing certain software programs to be made available for the Totality at no cost to them. Computer software related to somebody’s Vocation would be provided to them for free in order to facilitate their ability to contribute Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld. A very basic list of software and their source codes, applicable to the National Intranet, will also be free at the behest of the Totality and the Council State. This includes the Operating System (OS), web browser, and a package of application programs. Provided that everyone’s actions fall within the legal framework of their respective Legal Duties and Constitutional Obligations, the Totality should be allowed to contribute their own creations to the National Intranet.
After a computer programmer creates something, they will perform specific actions that will determine whether their Intellectual Property falls under Productive Property or Personal Property. For computer software to be considered as Productive Property, it needs to have a registered Patent, allow issuances of Production Licenses, and well-outlined set of Intents regarding the original source code. By having the Totality purchase Production Licenses after fulfilling specific requirements on the National Intranet, the authors of original software shall ensure that the Intents of Command and Obedience are upheld in the digital realm. They also assure the Council State that whatever becomes of their software and source codes will also be capable of contributing Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld.
Closed Source vs. Open Source and Video Game Development
The best way to internalize these arrangements is to think about the Video Game Industry in the context of an earlier Entry regarding the Machinima Artform. Machinima refers to the practice of creating cinematography out of a video game’s props, objects, items, and so forth. If the Council State decides to support the development of video games, the possibility is there for the Council State to devise a general purpose game engine that reflects the National Consciousness of the Totality. What applies to video games can also be said for Machinima.
Unlike regular video games, most Machinimas are relying on things that a video game developer had produced previously as their set pieces and the game engine as their canvas. Any potential legal issues could be resolved if the Council State supports the development of a game engine that encourages Machinima filmmakers and video game developers alike.
The ideal scenario would involve the Council State presiding over the development of a general purpose, open source game engine and its source code, both of which will be made available to the Video Game Industry. The Video Game Industry has the game engine and source code serve as the canvas for their own creations. They are welcome to create their own in-house derivatives and register Patents for them or offer improvements to the existing engine, all of which can be done on the National Intranet.
When the developers create a video game on this general purpose, open source game engine, everything involved in the project becomes their Personal Property. Patenting them and providing Production Licenses converts that Personal Property into Productive Property. The Manufacturing Sector will be allowed to create copies of the original software for the Services Sector to later sell to the Totality in the Real World or on the National Intranet.
As Productive Properties contributing Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld, the video games themselves need to be able to let others provide their own contributions. Special tools for modders and Machinima filmmakers should be included and the ability to contribute Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld accounted for by the Social Forums’ Economic Planners and retinue of Accountants. Since the Work-Standard demands ‘the highest Quality of Arbeit for the least Quality of Geld’, modders and Machinima filmmakers are going to be the first ones to obtain the source code with the proper Production License before the rest of the Totality. If they do not have the prerequisite Social Rank, their Profession alone will suffice. Once they have the source code, the must uphold the original Intents of the developers when they decide to carry out their own activities on the National Intranet.
Outside of video games, implementing the State of Total Mobilization should also be applied to Social Media and the Social Forums. Note that the Social Forums and Social Media are two different entities. We will be focusing on those two in the next part of this Entry.
Categories: Politics
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