> It seems like mechanics really don't like digging into the electrical part of the car.
this is like saying that computer programmers don't like digging into the proprietary and binary blobs from other vendors.
I am trying to say it's not fair to blame mechanics because even if they want to dig into the electronics, the car manufacturers take active measures to prevent 'random mechanics' from digging around.
I suppose there are many rational and reasonable way to justify why this is so; probably all having some form of "because safety" and "because IP of vendors".
it's not that we didn't develop culture, it's just that the scientific/academic CANNOT accept nothing which is not written down (or which exist as material remnants), and writing is barely over 10 or 12 thousand years old.
meaning that the preceding period of cultural development doesn't exist for them by the 'choice' of relying solely on material artifacts as admissible evidence; which unwritten (oral only) transmission does not have.
the roman catholics burned it so to make their mythical "jesus" figure stick.
with the info destroyed in that fire we became 'disconnected' from the real historical jesus; thereby enabling the rise of the mythical figure tweaked to allow easier control of the masses. "what would jesus do?"
> Might be interesting to start a large "online library" that does physical books by mail.
but this changes everything. My whole point (which you seem to have ignored) is that when dealing with physical goods, then the systems (traditions, institutions) already in place work fine.
But why would I do that when I can give the PDF version to everybody due to ZERO distribution costs? (not marginal costs, even less. zero costs once the PDFs are made).
> Controlled digital lending had a chance of getting off the ground.
sure, it may have worked, but fuck me if that's what we get. controlled digital lending means we throw away[1] the great advantage brought by digital technology.
controlled digital lending is a very stupid thing to do. I saw megaupload. it showed us all that we can all share it all; we just don't seem to want to, or rather, the American government pursued them into extinction.
[1] looking at this even more closely, it's not that this 'digital advantage' is wasted, it is merely captured by authoritative powers who only understand markets, trade, and exclusive properties (exclusive due to being physical/material in nature unlike digital assets). e.g. Microsoft's billionaire business is made from capturing this digital boon as I called it.
But this is by 'design', I have very unreasonable suspicions that indeed, the whole VC 'world of entrepreneurs' is just the way the USA government does R & D on an industrial-corporate scale. The 'brilliance' behind this way of doing R&D is that they only pick up the winners after they won, so they don't "waste" money on R&D death ends nor moonshots.
on the other hand, this is a good way to 'explode' for cheap the technological applications of already developed scientific innovations. meaning none of those VC-backed startups are doing innovative research, but in fact are devleoping commercial applications for corporate overlords who having seen who won, step in to buy them out.
even music industry is shifting to that model, they are now only signing bands/artists/influencers who already build their audience.