Freedom of Expression

In America, we got freedom of expression. Freedom of whatever you’re into.

Yeah I suppose the new ones is; at what point, is it tyranny?

For example, certainly got the freedom to express yourself however you want. But, you cannot force me against my own will to address you a certain way.

In America, certainly there is racism, sexism, hate. But when do things cross the line?

First, violence. Physical violence, or even motivating people to physical violence, should be illegal.

Yet, verbal violence… This is where things get very tricky. Then suppose, the issue is freedom of hate, freedom of speech, freedom of racism, sexism, as well as issues of religion?

Trigger words

It is true that certain words have been Weaponized to cause negative triggers in people. But let us say that you spin up 1 billion fake bots, which are anti-Semitic, anti-whatever, and you unleash them on real human beings on social media whether it be Facebook Instagram Twitter email etc. And these advanced bots, which are powered by generation three artificial intelligence, control you to extreme ends, all the while when you think that  it is a real human… And you feel all of these negative human emotions, but you essentially figure out that it was a bot the whole time? 

Bots?

Bot, robot. 

Let us do a thought experiment; let us say that you are photographer on Instagram, and you are very very happy because you have 100,000 followers, and every time you upload a picture, it gets like at least 10,000 times.

But, let us say that one day, I reveal to you that 99,999 of your followers, and 99% of the likes you got were actually from a bot?

Or even worse, let us say that you’re getting cyber bullied email Twitter Instagram Facebook whatever… And the whole time for years, you feel so angry and upset and it ruins your sleep because of all these trolls and haters. But what if I snap my fingers and reveal to you that the whole time, None of them… Literally 0% of them were real human beings, and they were all robots, bots the whole time? How would you feel?

One step further; what then I revealed to you that these bots were not even programmed by a human, but they were programmed by another bot, and that was programmed by another bot, and that was also programmed by another bot. And let us also say that the first that was programmed, wasn’t even from a human, but also from a bot? Scary.


Don’t trust anything which is not face-to-face 

It’s funny… I’m probably one of the most hated, most successful photographers on the planet. I can easily say that I’m the first street photography millionaire. 

What I have learned in my experience is that all these people who are “haters“; we have actually met them in the flesh, we’re actually very cordial, friendly, knew a lot about me in good ways, and essentially what I discovered was they agreed on me with 99% of my opinions, but it was only one or two things that I did that they disagreed with, which invoked strong emotions?

So I say the intelligent thought and the notion is to never give heed to any toxicity on the Internet. Why? Disable all the comments, disable them in your ad blocker, or just delete them. Why? Once again, what if 99.999% of all comments on the Internet or just bots all along? And what if all these comments you’re reading on Reddit, and these these threads… Also, all bots?

Even when I used to be a Reddit user back in college, I don’t think I ever made a Reddit account, nor did I ever leave comments. I think I only left one comment on Reddit in my life, mostly a humorous one. I think 99.999% of real human beings are just lurkers.

Then it makes me think, if you have enough motivation to actually leave a comment, certainly you must be very very personally invested in the thing to actually overcome the function of leaving a comment.

Comments are dead. 

A photo publishing platform that will host and share your photos for free forever… without advertising? 

This is my big idea; very very simple. Essentially the only places that you could post your pictures on the Internet, all are free, but also all are supported by advertising.

There are two companies like smug mug which exist which actually have a sustainable business model, be charged real money for you to host your website and your photos! It seems like a good model because they were to buy out Flickr.

I think the main issue here is that the reason why Flicker was sold and result so many times was nobody could figure out how to monetize it effectively. Even now when you go to Flicker, it is like 90% advertisements? 

What we need is a carte blanche, blank slate approach tipping; if you created a photo sharing or photo publishing website in the year 2024, essentially it should be powered by bitcoin, the bitcoin wallet, Satoshis.

Why? First you need some sort of treasury fund, store value that could allow the platform to live into perpetuity. Example even with arsbeta.com — the hosting is just been paid from you from my personal bank account, and essentially I’m just doing the pro bono thing of keeping the platform alive with my own wallet. But when I die, who will pay the hosting?

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Can it last 300 years?

Nietzsche came out with some ideas:

 first, how do you know whether someone has any worthwhile ideas or not? Simple; if there are thoughts can last at least 300 years.

Also the sign of a good guitar for; if your photos can still last and impart meaning 300 years from now… They are good.

This is still why time is the best test of things; and why it is good to study the past. For example, the photos of Henri Cartier Bresson as well as Robert Capa. If a photographer has been around for a long time, typically it is sign and signal that their photos are good. This is why when it comes to photos, photography and art, durability is key. And durability just means being around for a long time. 
It is highly dubious that any digital camera will last for 30 years. It seems that the only thing which will last 30 years, maybe even 100 years is some sort of film Leica M camera– I am highly certain that my film Leica MP and 35mm f2 Leica summicron ASPH Lens will still be functional by the time Seneca is 36 years old, and also will still be functional by the time he has the son, and his son is 36 years old.

Film is interesting because as time goes on, it will keep getting more and more expensive, but, I think you will still be able to somehow process it. And also I think a big innovation could be had in terms of making film development and processing very very easy at home, like some sort of cheap machine or easy scanner.

The idea, is like some sort of digital film 36 mm Cartridge, in which you could just swap in and out a digital sensor for your film camera. Or, it could just use traditional 36 mm film, except you could just invent a machine in which you could just throw in the film cartridges, and the machine will automatically process them, and scan them for you!

Photo projects?

 what is a project, or a photography project?

Essentially, I think of it like a book; what is a book? A book is just an enclosed collection of certain writing and ideas. A book could be however long or short as you wanted to be; for example le petite prince, only 36 pages or so? 

And also, I book doesn’t have to be print-based. It could be digital, an e-book, a PDF file, even a really long blog post. Now with the digital transformation, we are beyond a world of analogue.

Arguments against analogue

For example, there is this huge bias that analog, it must be analogue. 

But the most critical issue here, let us think and consider that money is no longer analogue. If money were truly analogue, in the physical realm, instead of caring around pieces of reinforced paper in our wallets, we would have tiny gold coins or something.