[Art]

If you will, equate it to farming. A farmer worked extremely hard through years and countless difficult times. At times the back was practically breathing down his neck if he defaulted on a payment. But the farmer and his family continued to work hard to own that property. When the day came for the final land payment the farmer paid it with the pride of knowing that the land was now his.

In the Open Source vein, there were many avenues that the farmer took during those years. Numerous organizations like the 4-H, FFA (Future Farmers of America) as well as Co-Ops (Cooperative ventures and harvest), sub leasing and shared harvesting, free trading and barter systems. Open Source is nothing new to farmers yet the still OWN their property!

Some of you act like ownership is wrong! BS! News Flash!! Some people actually work hard for what they have and for what they hope to have.
There are also those who would gladly take a handout for free if there wer no strings attached! (like work). There are those who have come to expect a handout yet have done nothing in return for it! This is sort of akin to Socialism which works fine until you run out of other people's money!

Freely sharing ideas and methods can be rewarding if done for the right reasons but there are the greedy ones who would take that idea and try to capitalize on it for themselves. Those people have always been with the various societies and cultures since the caveman and I doubt they go away any time soon.

Google has given away much if truth be told and they just keep making money.
They still have to keep some things from being Open Source so they might make a profit which they need to survive like any good business.

I also agree that we actually OWN nothing and nothing is exactly what we will take with us when we leave this life! The "things" we cherish and claim that we "own" are only ours to use or borrow for the time we're here, then someone else will get the items to use while they are here, and so on...etc.

If you want some real irony to chew on, think of this...EVERYTHING...that you see or have or use that is around us, came from the Earth in one form or another. Everything was made from the Earth and one day, Everything will return to the Earth once more.

SO, the idea of Owning a piece of property or item is only for a fleeting moment of time...20-40-60-80 or so years...until you're forced to give it up!

Just some thoughts....
Enjoy your Ownership while you're able!

[Ultron]

Korrelean, I doubt it would be wise to 'open-source' one such algorithm and schematic as it would be easily weaponizable and thus extremely dangerous. Militarizing A.I. should be the worst fear today. So no, I wouldn't open source such a project however I believe the discussion was meant for smaller projects which can't directly change the face of this planet - such a new, more efficient method to control DIY robots, for example. Or a faster and lighter database management system - I personally use one (SQLite) and my recent projects would not be possible if these people did not choose to open-source it. This was what I was referring to.

Freely sharing ideas and methods can be rewarding if done for the right reasons but there are the greedy ones who would take that idea and try to capitalize on it for themselves. Those people have always been with the various societies and cultures since the caveman and I doubt they go away any time soon.

This may never change, sadly. But one must start from himself, if he believes the world needs to change. And even if we don't succeed, the struggle and will to do so is by default - success!

I also agree that we actually OWN nothing and nothing is exactly what we will take with us when we leave this life! The "things" we cherish and claim that we "own" are only ours to use or borrow for the time we're here, then someone else will get the items to use while they are here, and so on...etc.

I am glad you agree with me on that one - this is something the greedy people should be taught! Our natural purpose of existence (I believe) is to survive, reproduce and make way for a better future for our offspring, which is an ideally 'infinite' (please don't start again, Data - at least I put quotes!) loop and thus is the cause for the constant improvement and adaptation of a species - leading to someone coining the term 'evolution'.

If you want some real irony to chew on, think of this...EVERYTHING...that you see or have or use that is around us, came from the Earth in one form or another. Everything was made from the Earth and one day, Everything will return to the Earth once more.

Khm... All the natural, non-synthetic elements  you see on the periodic table were formed on and come from stars (natural fusion reactors) and other unknown astrological phenomena. However, all of the minerals and more complex physio-chemical systems were formed on Earth or other similar (so called 'cold') celestial bodies - this includes other planets, asteroids and comets.

[ranch vermin]

Korrelan,  Heres what I think about that... (excuse me if I sound a little crazy) you can see the urge to keep things for oneself is a strong one, as it pushed you to write that, but I have a funny feeling that same urge creates racism, nonintegration, and world war. 

And I have it, too. 

I try to keep it at bay, because I dont seem to be able to knock the thoughts off completely, but I think that its actually illogical.  Your the equivilent of causing pain to yourself, now and in the future by thinking these thoughts, unknowingly,   its the same feeling that rich people have, they think they are a greater breed and are entitled to their riches, even with no work involved.

[ivan.moony]

What one asks from the world depends on motives for igniting some deed. Motives can vary from money, through fame, to inner satisfaction of knowing that you've made something useful to someone. I prefer to saturate all three rewards from investment of my time to AI. However, there are some situations like illness (God forbid) where I would ask nothing more than inner satisfaction. I guess that wanting a reward depends on the subject which would gain goods I create. And there is a second dimension, dimension of already having what I need in life. I would like to reach that point, then I would ask nothing but inner satisfaction for anything I do.

To rephrase your last question, Korrelan: Who would want to donate his/her last $100 (and bankrupt after that) to a millionaire?

[Ultron]

It was an interesting moment when I realized that I  am actually looking at this problem (and discussion / topic) very differently from the rest of you. I cannot explain your drive, but I see things from an long (very long) - term and a rather technical, not-so-natural perspective...

I have began to look at my life as a mission - a duty I must fulfill - this comes from the understanding and thinking about the point of life... The main reason why I have been considering this and reaching those conclusions is in fact the aftermath of my destructive A.I. research and theorization. We actually do not need anything in life, except food, water and shelter to survive - yet humanity has 'evolved' so much and epicly reconsidered their main values in life. Why? Why do we strive to surpass our most basic (and the only essential) needs?

So, I look at it as this: We are born because of the human need for reproduction, which exists due to evolution. Not all offspring are expected or meant to survive and be successful (teasing, right?). So, we are all, by default, born with a purpose - to improve and better our species, and in the end pass the most valuable and essential information and experience to the next generation which we are also 'obliged' to create. This generation is now supposed to be better then the past and repeat the general steps as the previous one.

If we do not succeed, then we are a failed generation or 'un-successful unit' in the generation. Humanity wouldn't survive for so long if we did not improve and most importantly adapt. It would also not survive or would not need to improve if the 'weak units' in the generation were satisfactory and strong enough to survive. But that would be unnatural.

A longish and badly-written text, I know. I just spilled out a stream of thoughts from my mind and converted it to linguistic units which are 'good enough' or 'satisfactory' at most - this is because there wasn't a need for a better writing. If there was however, a competitive party out there or a higher writing standard set for all forums, I would adapt, improve my skills and this text would be much more pleasant to read.