Intellectual Property? Economics? Remixed! – Assignment 7

After watching the RIP! A Remix Manifesto, I have to agree with what was said in the documentary. The truth about ideas that are opened up for people to explore and built upon to progress our culture is very important and a concept that can be seen as a vehicle to the future. Ideas that people have come up with and shared with others are the way that new generations have come up with other ideas that are in our society today. This is the way ideas have been passed through generations before and how it has happened until now, that intellectual and copyright property laws are in place that don’t allow others to use their work and make it better, different, change it, and make something new, that might become that something that becomes popular. Even if it doesn’t become popular, it can become something that still affected the culture in which it is, and those ideas are worth not blocking by lawsuits and corporations.

Another idea that has come into the national spotlight and has gained attention of not just the public but of economists as well is the matter of the minimum age. I agree with California’s minimum wage raise because inflation has been rising the costs of living for all areas of a person’s life, and wages have not risen at the same rate. This is a problem and has caused many people to not pursue or do things that they might have otherwise done. This is a form of social control and has to be eased or stopped as much a possible. If economists think that there shouldn’t be an externally messing with the invisible hand that drives economics, then there also shouldn’t be any inflation that also messes with that hand and what it could or would do. If people don’t have enough money to buy things that the need or would otherwise buy, then that is also a problem, and that problem needs to be corrected. In this case, that problem is inflation and when corrected through minimum wage raises, then it will be a more stabilized method of commerce.

Dolores Huerta: A Labor of Rights

Dolores Huerta visited Cal Poly Pomona and it was a great inspiration for many of us students. It was right before the mid term election too, which was one of the topics that she spoke about. The evening began with some mariachi music that was played by a trio.

Her story is an inspiration to many students who are trying to get their ideas across to the public and to other minorities and groups who might feel like they’re unheard or don’t matter. What happened to her and the course of her career has been such a great part of how her character has developed and how she continues to conduct everything she does.

Ms. Huerta also spoke on the importance of voting and voting rights. She explained how she was others along with Cesar Chavez, were able to work and bring to the attention of President Reagan, the issue of immigration and farm workers. They were able to introduce a bill that helped give farm workers a chance to continue to do their work, without fear that they might be deported and not be able to feed their families.

She was a great inspiration to me personally, coming from a person who is a first generation college student. She gave me new insight and will to continue to do my studies and prepare for the future career that I will have.

Growing Trains

I attended the New Urbanism Film Festival and watched “Trainsforming America”, which is a documentary on how people in Europe and other regions in the world use trains, especially high speed rail, to move about and not drive to whatever place they’re going to.

I liked that the film explored how the US used to have such great and extensive rail network that people used to move about, even inside cities. Los Angeles used to have at one point, the most urban rail in the entire world, even more that New York. That was torn out and replaced by miles of freeway as the automobile became prominent across the country. The social and cultural changes that came with the car are still with us today, and this is the reason why rail is taking so long to be adopted by the American public today. After watching the movie, I became excited about the future of rail, at least in California where the California High Speed Rail is already under construction in Fresno.

I also watched the Democracy Now! Maui Vs Monsanto video. I was very glad to know that Hawaii passed this anti GMO bill. The fact that Monsanto is allowed to do this patented seed technology to charge farmers to get seeds with their information is outrages. They can sue farmers into bankruptcy because they used “their” seeds. The fact that any company can say that all seeds around the world of one type are their property is ludicrous. No company or person can own all of nature in that manner or specific plants. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to do this and this law is the perfect example.

Natural Technology

When we think of anything technologically based, we rarely associate that with anything biological or natural. The two worlds are far apart and one might think they don’t have anything to do with each other. However, in Steven Johnson’s Introduction: Here Comes Everybody, he proves some points that contradict just that. Biology and technology can actually become categories and share many similarities. Even mathematics can be related to biology in some ways. I thought it was very interesting how these different categories can be interconnect and can relate one to another. One doesn’t think in that manner most of the time and isolates one field, like biology, completely away form technology. The two seem to be so distant and have nothing to do with each other. Biology tends to replicate and recycle and not waste anything. Technology seems to renew itself but not recycle its hardware and thus, leaves great amounts of waste and toxins to be thrown into landfills. The way the intro chapter introduces the methods to relate these things to each other opens up a new path to thinking how these different, “unrelated” topics actually correlate with each other.

In the video How to Fight Desertification and Reverse Climate Change, Allan Savory presents a method that one might think has elements that would not be relatable to each other. His suggestion that we fight desertification by mimicking what nature already does makes perfect sense and falls into the category of biomimicry. Biomimicry is something that stands as one of the solutions to climate change problems. Nature has a way of always taking care of its own “problems” which it somehow solves without hurting other systems within itself. It always recycles materials and gives them to another system that needs to have them, which it uses for good. In this same way, I agree with Savory that herds moved along fields and preserve and protect land from turning into deserts. Its a great idea and something that mimics what nature would do. Anytime we mimic what nature has done to recycle and regenerate systems, we are also finding solutions to problems what will not hurt others and will recycle “used” materials and move them to other places for the benefit of all.