-- NonaFarahnik - 27 Jan 2010 ALLOWTOPICVIEW = LawContempSocGroup?

I am not sure if I am using this right but I wanted to try. I also need to go to bed, so I am writing quickly and maybe not clearly. Anyway, I was thinking about (forgive me if I misunderstood) Art's "biology" suggestion of class stratification as a natural consequence of our humanness and Eben's response that the uninterrupted history of stratification is an arbitrary societal creation that is more of a reflection on the uninterrupted history of a power/wealth owner class. Something that is dissatisfying for me is the abstract way we speak about whoever the non-owners are. For example, my question about hypothetical access to perfect education for all, was more of a question of how widely improved access to education would figure into a chart that equates measurable ownership with power. Eben's response was that we have such glaringly disparate public education because that is how the 10% wants it to be, otherwise, being the top 10% they are, they would not allow it to be such. This raised another issue for me, though I agree mostly with his sentiment-- what about when we get into the actual practical every-day part hurdles for the most difficult of problems? What about teacher's unions that protect seniority over competence? Parents who are not involved in their child's education? Where does individual motivation and responsibility fit in to this picture? I am curious about how Eben feels about the Joel Klein/Bloomberg attempts.

Some other questions for Eben I want to write down before I forget. Do you think it was wrong for the government to intervene as it did before/during/after Bear Stearns/Lehman? Do you think there is significant value to the Gates foundation? How does the commitment of two of the people who make up a large part of the 1% to donate almost all of that fortune figure into this analysis?

Why do you want to destroy Apple/ disagree with Jobs' hyper-proprietary strategy? I like the control they yield over their products and very much enjoy my user experience (and look forward to the tablet!).

ps. Eben if you read these, this site and the conversations are totally indexed on google, if I understand the correct term for indexed.

pps. I do not know anything about computer programming but it would be cool if we could hyperlink to a classmate's profile a la twitter so they would know they were being brought into our wiki posts.