I’d have thought bread was a more basic requirement than cake.

As regards technology as the servant, I couldn’t agree more. Moreover, it must and should not create more problems than it solves. And finally, if you do enough walking anyway, do you really need the gym?

Woodsy

I do not consider myself to be a luddite, but I do insist on technology being the servant and not the master. If it gets in the way of the real-world problem in hand then I won’t use it. (Why DRIVE to the gymnasium - why not walk?)

Allen C

In terms of the total population of the world, the internet is still a luxury for the developed nations and the elites of the less developed.

As regards politicians, sewers may not be ’sexy’ enough for them, although most deserve it as their natural habitat.

Woodsy

Don’t forget that there are some (more remote) households which don’t yet have mains water, electricity, gas, or sewage - things people would consider a basic amenity - more important, even, than owning a TV, or the Internet.

Digging sewers is not “sexy” enough for the politicians to bother with - they are too bedazzled with the flashy new technology. They ought to be more concerned with the basic amenities of life. People die from a lack of food and shelter - they don’t die from a lack of the Internet.

It’s time we got our priorities right.

It’s not just the video we like: the software rocks too!

I wonder if you saw the following from El Reg’s 25th anniversary GNU piece, which I thought particularly relevant:

The words “freedom” and “community” have been grabbed by policy wonks, bureaucrats, politicians and marketeers. Taking the metaphor, and throwing away the principles, it’s become a way of manufacturing consensus: used in rhetoric designed to justify plantation-style labour, cultural misanthropy and economic Feudalism, all promising to hurl us back to a pre-Enlightenment era. You’ll now see Open Source freely used as a cynical marketing tactic, and note that “community development” of software is almost entirely funded by one or two huge corporations (Google and IBM).

But you can’t blame GNU for the bad metaphorical logic used by the political class, or similar opportunists.

Stallman looks more justified than ever in rejecting utilitarian arguments for “the four freedoms”. Software is simply a tool, and he’s helped keep it open.

Glad you liked the video!