[IP] The Myth of Scarcity, or Verizon-MCI is Doomed
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dana Blankenhorn <danablankenhorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 2, 2005 3:08:43 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The Myth of Scarcity, or Verizon-MCI is Doomed
Reply-To: Dana Blankenhorn <dana@xxxxxxxxxx>
For IP, if you wish
http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/archives/2005/05/02/
the_myth_of_scarcity.php
May 02, 2005
The Myth of Scarcity
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
The bidding war between Verizon and Qwest for MCI is based on a myth
of scarcity. That is, both think they can make the deal pay by
squeezing customers for the scarce resources represented by the MCI
network.
Moores Law of Fiber rendered that inoperative many years ago. There
is no shortage of fiber backbone capacity. And there are ample
replacements for Plain Old Telephone Service -- not just cable but
wireless.
The myth on which this deal is based is, simply, untrue.
Yet the myth persists, and not just in the telecommunications business.
In the news business, we have Phil Anschutz creating newspapers and
PBS being pushed to the political right based on the same scarcity
myth. There's only one newspaper, there is only one PBS, so if we
control it with our politics people will have to think what we tell
them to think.
Nonsense. There is no scarcity of outlets for either local or
national news. You're reading this, aren't you?
The same scarcity myth has long underlain the FCC's regulation of
broadcast content. The FCC regulates what is broadcast only because
there is a limited frequency spectrum, thus limited choice in each
market. Without that myth all content regulation is a direct
violation of the First Amendment.
And it is a myth. Moore's Law of Radios proves it. Cellular telephony
proves it. Frequencies can be re-used, and transmit far more than we
once thought. The resource is, in fact, practically unlimited.
(Of course genius, as in this picture called Scarcity by Saul
Lishinsky, is always in short supply. From The New Deal Network.)
Yet politicians on both sides persist in believing these myths. We
insist on believing there is scarcity in food, when there isn't. We
act like there's a scarcity of energy. There isn't. We just haven't
figured out how to efficiently harness the energy that's all around us.
I think Isaac Asimov's story Nightfall provides an answer as to why
this is so. Written at the start of a career legendary for its
output, it tells the story of a society that destroyed itself every
10,000 years, every time all its suns went into eclipse and people
realized how infinite the universe actually is.
All efforts at controlling the mind are subject to this myth of
scarcity. Try to control education and smart kids learn to reject
you. Try to control the Internet and Chinese people learn just how
precious a sip of freedom is, while the rest of us get bored by the
firehose.
Freedom is the answer to tyranny because freedom creates abundance,
or discovers the abundance that is in fact all around us.
To all those who feel oppressed, no matter their cause, I hope this
brings some comfort. In the end, freedom will win out. Maybe not
today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even in your lifetime, but it
will. Freedom, knowledge, and truth are all plastic, all powerful,
and all unlimited.
The universe, whether we're talking about your mind, this planet, or
the stars themselves, is far more infinite than you or I can possibly
know.
And the only way to get a taste of it is to open your mind, as
scientists do, and prepare always to have it changed.
Dana Blankenhorn danablankenhorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mooreslore Blog http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/
ZDNet OpenSource http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/index.php
A-Clue.Com http://www.a-clue.com dana@xxxxxxxxxx
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