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A comment on Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publishers' court win. Parent comment

Re:Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publis... by defrost on Saturday June 22, 2024 @07:44AM (#40758308)
> History shows us

Does it?

    Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t slaves who built the pyramids. We know this because archaeologists have located the remains of a purpose-built village for the thousands of workers who built the famous Giza pyramids, nearly 4,500 years ago.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyram...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Egypt#Great...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publis... by BSDobelix on Saturday June 22, 2024 @11:30AM (#40759756)
Yes, maybe the slaves did the less "worthy" jobs:

>Slaves were a constant presence in ancient Egypt. Starting with the Old Kingdom (2613 - 2181 BC), slaves took on different roles. Some became soldiers, others scribes.

https://www.worldatlas.com/ancient-world/were-slaves-used-to...

>Does it?

Yes it does, or do you have another argument against the Chinese wall or Belgium for example? Do you really want to argue against the fact that slaves did (and do) the hardest, most back-breaking jobs?

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Re:Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publis... by WalterBright on Saturday June 22, 2024 @03:37PM (#40761556)
Slave labor can indeed accomplish things, but it cannot compete with free labor.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publis... by BSDobelix on Sunday June 23, 2024 @05:51AM (#40766121)
>but it cannot compete with free labor.

In terms of quality you are right, in terms of quantity you are wrong (in the past), but in this day and age replacing people (slaves) with machines changes the whole thing again.

So yes, free labor with specialized people and specialized machines and cheap energy is the most competitive.

[ Parent | on HN ]