Time is money.

[D B Davis]

Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a

Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. It's a dystopian science
fiction story. The good news is that it's set in a drop dead gorgeous
world because everyone stops growing old after they reach the age of
twenty-five. The bad news, at least for the unwashed masses, is that
they hustle every day to earn enough time to live for one more day.
My serendipitous path to this movie begins with the latest issue of
_Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in
that issue.
Strauss believes that we now live in an age of limited creativity.
It is the age of the ego. Originality suffers because solo acts upstage
collective effort. Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain
the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate.
"Time Wars" begins with a description of _In Time_ and posits that
it's "the first science fiction film about precarity." (It's actually
not the first movie about precarity. Because _In Time_ builds upon a
short movie named "The Price of Life" [3] that appeared decades
earlier.)
Fisher describes the contemporary workplace as "post-Fordist". In
this new workplace the incessant demands of casual employment replace
the rigid work hours (and off hours) used by the factory in an earlier
era. Fisher laments how technology creates an attention deficit in
people as they race to keep up with numerous communication platforms.
_Propaganda_ (Ellul) talks about man's inability to synthesize
multiple inputs. Instead most people find it easiest to just forget what
came before as "one thought drives away another; old facts are chased by
new ones. Under these conditions there can be no thought."
_In Time_'s ghetto dwellers find themselves chasing one hustle after
another in a never ending struggle to acquire a slightly longer life.
They do things fast out of necessity, which makes all of them good
runners. The lowest class lives day to day at best, and sometimes minute
to minute. They can never afford to pay the one year toll to travel to
the best part of town.
_Survival of the Fittest_ (Darwin) works wonders to ease any twinge
of guilt felt by a privileged upper class with its eons of time in the
bank. They also close their eyes when a lessor person "times out." The
upper class is relentless in regards to stealing the lives of others. A
bus ticket that cost one hour yesterday costs two hours today.
The next stop on my serendipitous path is with science fiction's
inimical curmudgeon, the one and only Harlan Ellison. The way that
Ellison sees it, or saw it, _In Time_ infringes on his earlier work,
"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (RHStT). It's a nuanced
grievance because the Ellison itself contains another author's prose. A
timeless passage from Thoreau [4] appears near the beginning of RHStT.
The Thoreau's apropos to most, if not all, dystopic literature.
In a reversal of the group to ego evolutionary argument presented by
Strauss earlier, the movie replaces RHStT's solo Ticktockman with a
group, a "Timekeeper" police department. As an aside, one of the
thematic elements in the movie is to substitute well known phrases with
temporal labels. A police officer becomes a timekeeper. Death is a
"timeout", and so on. The movie recursively embellishes the phrase
"per diem" to mean twenty-four hours paid for each twenty-four hour
period.
One of Ellison's legitimate grievances is that the Ticktockman
subtracts time from a person's remaining lifetime for each offense.
Timekeepers also subtract time from an offender's organic clock.
In the end, money misdirects. It obfuscates the temporal component
of reality. "Remember that Time is Money."

Note.

1. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" by Strauss (excerpts)

The earlier, bigger part of hacking history often had congregations
as protagonists. From CCC in the early 80s to TESO in the 2000s,
through LoD, MoD, cDc, L0pht, and the many other sung and unsung
teams of hacker heroes, our culture was created, shaped, and
immortalized by their articles, tools, and actions.

This article discusses why recently we do not see many hacker groups
anymore, and why the ones we do, such as Anonymous and its satellite
efforts, do not succeed in having the same cultural impact as their
forefathers. ...

In "Time Wars" [1], Mark Fisher explains that post-fordism has taken
us to this catatonic inability to innovate. Our nearly obsessive
compulsion for work consumes not only our time, in the literal form
of labor hours, but our minds, by distracting us from everything
else we could be doing otherwise. These distractions include our
unceasing connection to ubiquous media (e.g. the frequent checks for
new e-mail, or accesses to social networks on mobile devices) as
well as an increased concern with financial stability and
provisioning, a concern that grows as welfare is invariably
trimmed by both the governments and the private sector. ...

http://phrack.org/./issues/69/6.html#article


2. "Time Wars" by Mark Fisher (excerpts)

Time rather than money is the currency in the recent science fiction
film In Time. At the age of 25, the citizens in the future world the
film depicts are given only a year more to live. To survive any
longer, they must earn extra time. The decadent rich have centuries
of empty time available to fritter away, while the poor are always
only days or hours away from death. In Time is, in effect, the first
science fiction film about precarity - a condition that describes an
existential precidament as much as it refers to a particular way of
organising work. ...

it is clear that most political struggles at the moment amount to a
war over time. The generalised debt crisis that hangs over all areas
of capitalist life and culture - from banks to housing and student
funding - is ultimately about time.

https://www.wired.com/2012/08/time-wars-by-k-punk/


3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRurZ7TlACc


4. "Resistance to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau (excerpts)

The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as
machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the
militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases
there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral
sense ; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and
stones ; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve
the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw,
or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses
and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good
citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers,
ministers, and office-holders, serve the State chiefly with their
heads ; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as
likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few,
as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men,
serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily
resist it for the most

https://archive.org/details/aestheticpapers00peabrich

Thank you,

--
Don

[David DeLaney]

On 2017-09-14, D B Davis <g...@crcomp.net> wrote:
> Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
> http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a
>

> Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. [...]

> _Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in

> that issue. [...]

> Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain

> the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate. [...]

> _In Time_ builds upon a

> short movie named "The Price of Life" [3] that appeared decades earlier.)[...]

> _Propaganda_ (Ellul) talks about man's inability to synthesize

> multiple inputs. [...]

> The way that
> Ellison sees it, or saw it, _In Time_ infringes on his earlier work,
> "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (RHStT). It's a nuanced
> grievance because the Ellison itself contains another author's prose. A
> timeless passage from Thoreau [4] appears near the beginning of RHStT.

> The Thoreau's apropos to most, if not all, dystopic literature. [...]

You can add in the villanous group in Ende's _Momo_, who are out to steal all
spare time from the people of the world, and who have practices among
themselves similar to the above.

Dave, more haste less speed
--
\/David DeLaney posting thru EarthLink - "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
my gatekeeper archives are no longer accessible :( / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <GaOdnQAX6qDTiyHE...@earthlink.com>,

David DeLaney <d...@vic.com> wrote:
>On 2017-09-14, D B Davis <g...@crcomp.net> wrote:
>> Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
>> http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a
>>
>> Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. [...]
>> _Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in
>> that issue. [...]
>> Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain
>> the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate. [...]
>> _In Time_ builds upon a
>> short movie named "The Price of Life" [3] that appeared decades earlier.)[...]
>> _Propaganda_ (Ellul) talks about man's inability to synthesize
>> multiple inputs. [...]
>> The way that
>> Ellison sees it, or saw it, _In Time_ infringes on his earlier work,
>> "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (RHStT). It's a nuanced
>> grievance because the Ellison itself contains another author's prose. A
>> timeless passage from Thoreau [4] appears near the beginning of RHStT.
>> The Thoreau's apropos to most, if not all, dystopic literature. [...]

And he's out of copyright.

>
>You can add in the villanous group in Ende's _Momo_, who are out to steal all
>spare time from the people of the world, and who have practices among
>themselves similar to the above.

Haven't read it. Don't think I will.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com

[Kevrob]

On Friday, September 15, 2017 at 2:05:11 PM UTC-4, David DeLaney wrote:
> On 2017-09-14, D B Davis <g...@crcomp.net> wrote:
> > Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
> > http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a
> >
> > Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. [...]
> > _Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in
> > that issue. [...]
> > Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain
> > the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate. [...]
> > _In Time_ builds upon a
> > short movie named "The Price of Life" [3] that appeared decades earlier.)[...]
> > _Propaganda_ (Ellul) talks about man's inability to synthesize
> > multiple inputs. [...]
> > The way that
> > Ellison sees it, or saw it, _In Time_ infringes on his earlier work,
> > "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (RHStT). It's a nuanced
> > grievance because the Ellison itself contains another author's prose. A
> > timeless passage from Thoreau [4] appears near the beginning of RHStT.
> > The Thoreau's apropos to most, if not all, dystopic literature. [...]
>
> You can add in the villanous group in Ende's _Momo_, who are out to steal all
> spare time from the people of the world, and who have practices among
> themselves similar to the above.
>
> Dave, more haste less speed
> --

Back in the early 1980s, I persuaded a very cute economics undergrad
to go on a second date with me by hand-writing her a snail-mail letter,
where I proposed* that instead of going on the gold standard (these
were the early Reagan years, remember) that we should adopt the "spare
time standard," with different minutes from different people being assigned
different worths, as when richer gold ore is assayed it brings a higher
price than the less Au-packed stuff. Of course, spare time from a
pretty co-ed going to school full-time and also working would be more
valuable than that of a hobo in the park!

It worked. I took her to a double-feature of the original "Bedazzled"
and "The Ruling Class" at the local repertoire cinema, and we dated off
and on for 6 mos.

Kevin R

* No, never "proposed" to her in the matrimonial sense. She was cute
AND smart, and I suspect one reason she dropped me was because she
imagined I might get that urge eventually, and she wasn't ready for that.
Neither was I, though if she had hung in there until I was through
with school and was making a real living she would probably have had
to put up with some feeble attempt on my part at permanent coupling.
My loss, her gain, I suppose. :)

[D B Davis]

De gustibus non est disputandum. Books in English and Deutsch are now on
order [1] for me. _Momo_'s missing from _Time Machines_ (Nahin), which
enhances _Momo_'s appeal to me. YMMV.

_Momo_ the movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjyAVfP-s4 (Deutsch)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_JYYcBP2Q (English)

So Ellison wants his name to appear in the movie's credits as a quid
pro quo to drop a copyright infringement claim on a work that's out of
copyright. How very Ellison of Harlan! ROTFL.
During the past few days and nights, my frontal lobe intermittently
ruminates on "Time Wars" (Fisher). It's a great title.
Fisher's post-Fordist notion only partially works for me because the
vast majority of American workers do indeed work forty hours a week at a
set time, just like your father's Ford factory workers. Although
retail/hotel/restaurant establishment may employ these workers (rather
than an automobile factory) they still show up at a set time to work a
set amount of hours. It's my hunch that after hours most
retail/hotel/restaurant employees give their job about as much thought
as a Ford factory worker did way back when, to wit: none, nada.
Employees who are off the clock couldn't care less about their employer.
Fisher's notion of a "capitalist dichotomy which opposes a
tragically overworked section of population against an equally
tragically unemployed one" makes sense to me. With the proviso that
"overworked" is synonymous with "underpaid."

Note.

1. Bezos apparently bought abebooks. My ethics make it impossible
for me to do business with Bezos because he ruthlessly exploits
employees and contractors.
So that leaves ebay as my only book store for most stories. Does
anyone know a well stocked www bookstore that Bezos /doesn't/ own?
TIA.

Thank you,

--
Don

[Lynn McGuire]

Half Price Books
https://www.hpb.com/

Lynn

[mcdow...@sky.com]

On Thursday, September 14, 2017 at 6:28:45 AM UTC+1, D B Davis wrote:
> Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
> http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a
>
> Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. It's a dystopian science
> fiction story. The good news is that it's set in a drop dead gorgeous
> world because everyone stops growing old after they reach the age of
> twenty-five. The bad news, at least for the unwashed masses, is that
> they hustle every day to earn enough time to live for one more day.
> My serendipitous path to this movie begins with the latest issue of
> _Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in
> that issue.
> Strauss believes that we now live in an age of limited creativity.
> It is the age of the ego. Originality suffers because solo acts upstage
> collective effort. Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain
> the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate.

To say that encouraging solo acts reduces creative effort is to pour contempt on most novels and almost all poems - because they are solo acts. IMHO to the extent that group effort succeeds in accomplishing anything at all, it does so by creating spaces within which solo effort can flourish.

Social Darwinism is a crock by its own standards - its most prominent proponents have all lost. As ethics it fails because what is does not imply what should be. As social science it fails because co-operating is observably abundant. ObSF - "Pro" by Gordon R Dickson.

> The next stop on my serendipitous path is with science fiction's

(trimmed)

[J. Clarke]

On Thu, 14 Sep 2017 05:28:41 -0000 (UTC), D B Davis <g...@crcomp.net>
wrote:

>

> Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
> http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a
>
> Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. It's a dystopian science
>fiction story. The good news is that it's set in a drop dead gorgeous
>world because everyone stops growing old after they reach the age of
>twenty-five. The bad news, at least for the unwashed masses, is that
>they hustle every day to earn enough time to live for one more day.
> My serendipitous path to this movie begins with the latest issue of
>_Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in
>that issue.
> Strauss believes that we now live in an age of limited creativity.
>It is the age of the ego. Originality suffers because solo acts upstage
>collective effort. Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain
>the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate.

What "catatonic inability to innovate" would that be?

[D B Davis]

Probably something along the lines of:

"You promised me Mars colonies. Instead, I got Facebook."
- Buzz Aldrin

Why We Can't Solve Big Problems
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/429690/why-we-cant-solve-big-problems/

Matter of fact, MIT's Technology Review website just forced me to use
Dillo after it crashed Opera, which took down my entire X11 session with
it. When rendered under Dillo, Technology Review's website now has the
temerity to proclaim:

Hello,
We noticed you're browsing in private or incognito mode.

To continue reading this article, please exit incognito mode or log
in.

Why Web 2.0? What does Web 2.0 do /for me/? Is Web 2.0 itself
symptomatic of yet another "catatonic inability to innovate?"

Hey Advertisers: The Data-Mining Emperor Has No Clothes
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogsept17/advert-emperor9-17.html

This brings to mind a few more questions. Political ego likes to pose
with the notion of an "Internet kill switch." Does anyone know exactly
where they keep the switch? Is it a big old honking red push button
that's hard to miss?

Thank you,

--
Don

[Kevrob]

Firefox, Adblock & NoScript handled it. Saw the message for half a
second, then the page resolved.

> Why Web 2.0? What does Web 2.0 do /for me/? Is Web 2.0 itself
> symptomatic of yet another "catatonic inability to innovate?"
>
> Hey Advertisers: The Data-Mining Emperor Has No Clothes
> http://www.oftwominds.com/blogsept17/advert-emperor9-17.html
>

We have the dilemma: if people won't pay for content, via-micropayment,
or some kind of subscription, then what alternative is there that allows
commercial sites to monetize visits? This results in an "arms race"
between those writing code that launches ads and those creating
blocking tech.

Kevin R

[Dorothy J Heydt]

"Why isn't there ever a big red button?"
-- the 8.5th Doctor

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <01d21005-6a28-4fe5...@googlegroups.com>,

Rather like Civilization vs. Boskone, isn't it.

[J. Clarke]

On Sat, 16 Sep 2017 15:02:19 -0000 (UTC), D B Davis <g...@crcomp.net>

wrote:

>
>In rec.arts.sf.written J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 14 Sep 2017 05:28:41 -0000 (UTC), D B Davis <g...@crcomp.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Remember that Time is Money. - Benjamin Franklin
>>> http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=304a
>>>
>>> Time replaces money in the movie _In Time_. It's a dystopian science
>>>fiction story. The good news is that it's set in a drop dead gorgeous
>>>world because everyone stops growing old after they reach the age of
>>>twenty-five. The bad news, at least for the unwashed masses, is that
>>>they hustle every day to earn enough time to live for one more day.
>>> My serendipitous path to this movie begins with the latest issue of
>>>_Phrack Magazine_. "The Fall of Hacker Groups" (Strauss) [1] appears in
>>>that issue.
>>> Strauss believes that we now live in an age of limited creativity.
>>>It is the age of the ego. Originality suffers because solo acts upstage
>>>collective effort. Strauss cites "Time Wars" (Fisher) [2] to explain
>>>the contemporary era's catatonic inability to innovate.
>>
>> What "catatonic inability to innovate" would that be?
>
>Probably something along the lines of:
>
>"You promised me Mars colonies. Instead, I got Facebook."
> - Buzz Aldrin
>
> Why We Can't Solve Big Problems
> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/429690/why-we-cant-solve-big-problems/
>

We can't "solve" going to Mars because NASA never bothered to solve
all the _little_ problems that would have made going to Mars
affordable. In fact going to the Moon was never actually "solved" in
the sense of having viable transportation system in place. It was
done as a stunt that didn't result in any real basis for continued
operations.

Falcon is going to be a more disruptive technology than I think most
people realize. People seem to have a lot of trouble getting their
head around the idea that fuel is only a tiny fraction of the cost of
a space launch.

>Matter of fact, MIT's Technology Review website just forced me to use
>Dillo after it crashed Opera, which took down my entire X11 session with
>it. When rendered under Dillo, Technology Review's website now has the
>temerity to proclaim:
>
> Hello,
> We noticed you're browsing in private or incognito mode.
>
> To continue reading this article, please exit incognito mode or log
> in.
>
>Why Web 2.0? What does Web 2.0 do /for me/? Is Web 2.0 itself
>symptomatic of yet another "catatonic inability to innovate?"
>
> Hey Advertisers: The Data-Mining Emperor Has No Clothes
> http://www.oftwominds.com/blogsept17/advert-emperor9-17.html
>

They sure target me with "laser-like precision". Whenever I buy
something on Amazon I get ads for whatever I bought for weeks after,
like I am really going to buy a second set of shock absorbers for a 20
year old Jeep right away and like online advertising is going to have
more impact on my decision than lack of a second 20 year old Jeep that
needs shock absorbers.

Now, want a really useful innovation--produce a product that detects
any time an advertisement has caused a problem for anybody, and when
it does it immediately lets the magic smoke out of that advertiser's
servers. If it can let the magic smoke out of the advertiser as well,
so much the better.

>This brings to mind a few more questions. Political ego likes to pose
>with the notion of an "Internet kill switch." Does anyone know exactly
>where they keep the switch? Is it a big old honking red push button
>that's hard to miss?

Probably like a Staples "Easy Button". Doesn't actually do anything
but it looks impressive on your desk.

I suspect that killing the Internet reliably would take precise use of
nuclear weapons and kill a great deal more than the Internet.

[D B Davis]

mcdow...@sky.com wrote:

<snip>

> Social Darwinism is a crock by its own standards - its most prominent
> proponents have all lost. As ethics it fails because what is does not
> imply what should be. As social science it fails because co-operating
> is observably abundant. ObSF - "Pro" by Gordon R Dickson.

"Social Darwinism" is a great little phrase. So don't be surprised
when you see me use it in the future. :0)
There's a certain class of people in this world who twist science to
fit their own narrative. They butchered Wat Tyler (out of envy?) for
being "the greatest thief and robber in all Kent." Later they twisted
Einstein's relativity into their own narrative and called it "moral
relativity."

"Relativity applies to physics, not ethics." -Albert Einstein.

Thank you,

--
Don

[David DeLaney]

On 2017-09-15, Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:

> David DeLaney <d...@vic.com> wrote:
>>You can add in the villanous group in Ende's _Momo_, who are out to steal all
>>spare time from the people of the world, and who have practices among
>>themselves similar to the above.
>
> Haven't read it. Don't think I will.

It's actually told in mythic children's fairy-tale style, almost. I think you'd
really like Casseiopeia the 60-minute-precognizant turtle, and the time
flowers, and a lot of the symbolism. Momo's an orphan, and you might be unhappy
about the ways the grey cigar-smoking timestealing identical business-suited
villians try to make her life miserable to keep her from interfering in their
Master Scheme.

(They get their comeuppance, though.)

He's the same guy that wrote _The Neverending Story_, and it's meant for
readers of about the same age groups, including the "adults, who will get
nostalgic and will also pick up on some or all of the symbolism that whooshes
over children's heads".)

I can't think offhand of any actually-squicky portion of it, from your point
of view.

Dave