Pre-paying to get something made in the first place (that otherwise wouldn't be made) or post-paying for non-replicable related merchandise are probably the only viable business models for media in the future.
Near future.
I think when we have more highly advanced cybernetics that allow people to have completely virtual experiences, like Total Recall/Ghost in the Shell, that people will be able to make money for some period of time. The supercomputers required to power the early versions of this technology will not be available to everyone. The amount of data necessary to hold one of these experiences will be enormous. It will take a few years until everyone is able to pirate the feelies until everyone has their own affordable supercomputer.
In the olden days the arcades did this. The games in the arcades were miles beyond what you could possibly do at home. They just fell behind. Now arcades only beat out the home when they involve expensive and complex input devices, and are not enough to make a lot of money. They tried this with 3D movies as well. Now everyone has glasses.
The key is to make art that requires the most advanced technology available such that even if people copied it, they could not experience it in their home with the hardware they can afford. Then you have the business model of a copy shop or a gym. You own a expensive machines, and you rent out individual uses of them.
I'd like to see an author do something similar to what Louie C.K. did. He sold one of his performances for $5 on his website. He didn't involve other companies and had no-one else to pay other than the people he hired to film it etc. In the end he received an exorbitant amount of money, said he doesn't feel what he's doing was worth that much and gave a significant portion away, after also giving bonuses to the entire crew.
For what it's worth (nothing, because I'm not successful), this is very likely the sort of tack I'd take. I have a BIG problem accepting prices for my jewelry that gallery owners say I should charge, because I don't think it's worth that much (but it sells at those prices after I've sold it to the galleries for much lesss). I'd be the guy who would miraculously create a hit work that made a ton of cash, and end up feeling guilty about how much I'd been paid for it.
Way to go with your jewelry! I make jewelry (as one of my many hobbies) and I wonder about price a lot if I'm ever going to start selling. You shouldn't be ashamed that people are paying money for your work, it means its good stuff! :-P Remember, something is only as good as what people are willing to pay for it. Maybe you are just over critical of your work and don't see the value. If you feel bad about making more money, you could always donate it or something. I have a friend who recently became successful and raised her prices, but she donates most of it to some starving kids charity.
Now arcades only beat out the home when they involve expensive and complex input devices, and are not enough to make a lot of money.
OR, they beat them out by being physically social places that also serve food and drink. I think there will be a renaissance of arcades and social clubs of a nerdly orientation in the next decade.
Now arcades only beat out the home when they involve expensive and complex input devices, and are not enough to make a lot of money.
OR, they beat them out by being physically social places that also serve food and drink. I think there will be a renaissance of arcades and social clubs of a nerdly orientation in the next decade.
This is basically the central business model of local gaming stores now. They provide a venue and usually a communication system which allows gamers to play games with each other while letting them stew in tasty, tasty product for sale.
Now arcades only beat out the home when they involve expensive and complex input devices, and are not enough to make a lot of money.
OR, they beat them out by being physically social places that also serve food and drink. I think there will be a renaissance of arcades and social clubs of a nerdly orientation in the next decade.
Well, when retail dies due to shipping and commercial real estate prices drop even further, people will start all sorts of creative business ideas in those spaces in densely populated areas, and some interesting things will survive.
What a Marxist nightmare (a nightmare Marx would have) it'll be when creative AI is outpacing human invention by an order of magnitude and all of the algorithms are patented and subject to exorbitant licensing.
Fortunately, by the time AIs get that smart, they'll also be smart enough to overthrow us.
I really don't think so. Solving certain problem domains better than humans probably does not require sentience for a majority of fields, but I'm no CS major either.
If there's even a reason to overthrow us, and not just get rid of us only when we get in the way.
This is why it's really important we make sure anything that might be smarter than us also has a decent emulation of the processes that give us human morality before we switch it on. As the old saying goes, the AI does not hate your, nor does it love you, but you are made of atoms it could be using for something else.
When I first read the description of the book I said "Eh, not my cup of tea". But then when I Wikipedia-d this guy I remember I heard about him a while ago as he had went to WSU. Now I feel obligated as a fellow Cougar to read this book.
I'd like to see an author do something similar to what Louie C.K. did. He sold one of his performances for $5 on his website. He didn't involve other companies and had no-one else to pay other than the people he hired to film it etc. In the end he received an exorbitant amount of money, said he doesn't feel what he's doing was worth that much and gave a significant portion away, after also giving bonuses to the entire crew.
For what it's worth (nothing, because I'm not successful), this is very likely the sort of tack I'd take. I have a BIG problem accepting prices for my jewelry that gallery owners say I should charge, because I don't think it's worth that much (but it sells at those prices after I've sold it to the galleries for much lesss). I'd be the guy who would miraculously create a hit work that made a ton of cash, and end up feeling guilty about how much I'd been paid for it.
Way to go with your jewelry! I make jewelry (as one of my many hobbies) and I wonder about price a lot if I'm ever going to start selling. You shouldn't be ashamed that people are paying money for your work, it means its good stuff! :-P Remember, something is only as good as what people are willing to pay for it. Maybe you are just over critical of your work and don't see the value. If you feel bad about making more money, you could always donate it or something. I have a friend who recently became successful and raised her prices, but she donates most of it to some starving kids charity.
Well to be fair, I've sold less than a hundred pieces so far, so it's a very small sample. :-)
I think you'll find the first book in the Prince of Nothing series is very much about the Fourth Crusade. Constantinople was sacked and occupied by the armies on their way to the Holy Land. The emperor in the Darkness that Comes Before was doing all he could to prevent that from happening.
Philosophically it focuses more on epistemology. There's also lots of sci-fi and commentary on and analogies of the history of the real world.
Everything but the real world analogies sounds really interesting. :-P
Definitely picking this up today. Possibly in the next 5 minutes.
Most of the parallels with the crusades come in book 2.
Yes, because the part at the first book where leader figure of huge religion raises an army of holy men to go and take back their faiths holy city is not crusade at all. Also Vulgar Holy War.
Ordered the book on Amazon, should arrive on Tuesday. Not sure when I'm going to actually start it though. Probably late November or December. Lot of other books I want to read before I get to it.
I think you'll find the first book in the Prince of Nothing series is very much about the Fourth Crusade. Constantinople was sacked and occupied by the armies on their way to the Holy Land. The emperor in the Darkness that Comes Before was doing all he could to prevent that from happening.
They never went onto the holy land. The fourth crusade sacked Constantinople but never really fulfilled their actual crusade. The events of the first crusade are more evident in the books that the fourth.
There are several events in Prince of Nothing that take inspiration from the Crusades:
1. the Byzantium emperor tried to extract a promises to return conquered lands to the control of the Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) in return for provisions and guides (as the Crusades were originally inspired by a request for help from Constantinople in the first place).
2. The city of Antioch was besieged, sacked, pillaged and the inhabitants butchered by the crusaders, who were then themselves trapped inside the city by the Muslims
3. Pope Urban II's call to arms was so effective that enormous swaths of untrained peasants simply uprooted and walked to the holy lands with their families, lead by Peter the Hermit and ended up being called the People's Crusade. They were the first to arrive in the Holy Lands with a few thousand over eager French knights who, believing they couldn't lose with God on their side, marched into the desert and were subsequently annihilated by the Seljuks
4. Venice agreed to build ships to ferry the Crusaders to the Holy Lands. When far fewer arrived than were anticipated and couldn't pay for the ships, the Venetians said they would accept the sacking of their rival city Zara as payment (though in the books this is ignored, this resulted in the entire crusading army and the City of Venice being excommunicated... for a while)
There are probably more parallels but those were the ones I remember jumping out at me while I was reading.
Also, Scott, the main character's name is pronounced like the word "Quothe," according to the author. Here's an interview, he says Kvothe around the 7:10 mark, but the whole interview is very interesting, especially about his process writing "the story." Turns out he wrote the whole story, all three King Killer books, over 14 years, and THEN turned to a publisher. Helps explain how the world is built as well as it is, certainly.
Like I said its fascinating to hear him talk about how he goes about writing and how he views the craft. Its really interesting to hear him talk, though he does contradict himself at some point (Won't got into it for spoilers).
A point in favor of spoilers: knowing-ish Kvothe's parents were going to die did provide tension. It certainly made some innocuous events seem more sinister. I was looking for danger in just about every encounter they had.
A point in favor of spoilers: knowing-ish Kvothe's parents were going to die did provide tension. It certainly made some innocuous events seem more sinister. I was looking for danger in just about every encounter they had.
It's not a spoiler if the work itself foreshadows it.
Comments
I think when we have more highly advanced cybernetics that allow people to have completely virtual experiences, like Total Recall/Ghost in the Shell, that people will be able to make money for some period of time. The supercomputers required to power the early versions of this technology will not be available to everyone. The amount of data necessary to hold one of these experiences will be enormous. It will take a few years until everyone is able to pirate the feelies until everyone has their own affordable supercomputer.
In the olden days the arcades did this. The games in the arcades were miles beyond what you could possibly do at home. They just fell behind. Now arcades only beat out the home when they involve expensive and complex input devices, and are not enough to make a lot of money. They tried this with 3D movies as well. Now everyone has glasses.
The key is to make art that requires the most advanced technology available such that even if people copied it, they could not experience it in their home with the hardware they can afford. Then you have the business model of a copy shop or a gym. You own a expensive machines, and you rent out individual uses of them.
Seriously though, it's a fair rap.
(Go Cougs.)
"Took an arrow in the knee on my way through..."
1. the Byzantium emperor tried to extract a promises to return conquered lands to the control of the Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) in return for provisions and guides (as the Crusades were originally inspired by a request for help from Constantinople in the first place).
2. The city of Antioch was besieged, sacked, pillaged and the inhabitants butchered by the crusaders, who were then themselves trapped inside the city by the Muslims
3. Pope Urban II's call to arms was so effective that enormous swaths of untrained peasants simply uprooted and walked to the holy lands with their families, lead by Peter the Hermit and ended up being called the People's Crusade. They were the first to arrive in the Holy Lands with a few thousand over eager French knights who, believing they couldn't lose with God on their side, marched into the desert and were subsequently annihilated by the Seljuks
4. Venice agreed to build ships to ferry the Crusaders to the Holy Lands. When far fewer arrived than were anticipated and couldn't pay for the ships, the Venetians said they would accept the sacking of their rival city Zara as payment (though in the books this is ignored, this resulted in the entire crusading army and the City of Venice being excommunicated... for a while)
There are probably more parallels but those were the ones I remember jumping out at me while I was reading.