beiz

but it isn't an island, because there is a global search index, allowing you to access information from each of them at will.

certain hobby forums are still central (i personally use them for my poultry, aquatics and ttrpgs hobby) - they remain dominant because these communities depend on a way to search historical data instead of reading an algorithm based flow stream with the same 10 questions every day.

unfortunately there is a large push of the younger generation who didn't grow up with forums to try and retool the concept of traditional forum activity on platforms that don't support it, most popular being discord (of all things?!), and facebook groups (just, why?). but as neither of these platforms support a search index outside of their walled gardens and encourage a spammy "flow" with peak interactions that slowly chokes any quality information, the future is pretty fucked on data if the teens don't move to classic software.

so imo, mastodon's traditional design with a modern face, together with the fediverse, has the potential to replace current commercial behemoths, and if it does, the internet might be saved. but if mastodon goes commercial, and find itself with a walled garden to generate more profits, there is little hope for the future.

just look at modern chat clients. there is a reason you can't talk to grandma's facebook account through your google chat anymore, and it isn't for your benefit.

the world used to be hell of a lot more connected and quality information used to be hell of a lot more accessible. but commercialization, SEO, and so on, is currently keeping -the internet- on life support. so a handful of people can play billionaires.

there is the icelandic althing which has been around since 930. but as per your point, no matter what, growth and change is necessary for the survival of an institution - especially one determined to last.

they already inflate it. all currency is currently regulated by the banks and value is purely artificial. you can thank the UK housing bubble. the banks realized digital currency is great because its not regulated, and created money out of thin air and lent it couples buying houses and any money they got back they counted as profits. this is why the economy crashed in 2008 - the globe realized there was nothing carrying value but the banks artificially maintaining value of currency.

the whole war in the middle east has been because the euro was about to become the new reserve currency, everyone, including china, was on board of this move - everyone, except the US. this is after the fact that nixon burned all of europe's gold in the vietnam war, the gold, which was supposed to balance the dollar. so yes, the current fallback is the US bonds but it isn't stable and the only reason the US maintains this system is because they fucked up.

so yeah, i don't buy it. the US isn't 'saving the world' by holding the dollar as a reserve. the entire US economy is hanging on by a thread and would collapse if they lose the global trade commission on dollar.

They are allowed to own and maintain and control these systems. No one is forced to use them, and if the US abuse it, they lose the control they currently are allowed to possess.

> Those are US assets and the US are free to...

GPS is a derivative of Håkan Lans AIS. The US military built the satellite network yes, but had they not shared it, another network would have been constructed to take its place as the technology itself is not American.

I fully agree with you though, the UN exist to host these projects as a non-partial entity. The fact that they don't is cause for some frustration and a risk to the world.

> False. False. False. The US has no responsibility, they own it.

They own it and share it, they get control and everyone else gets a service, the moment they abuse their control, everyone else will stop their dependence on it. that means they have a responsibility to keep this balance or lose control of it.

> Good luck, there's plenty of software in Europe with hardcoded URLs, and there's no chance of getting operating systems in Europe, which are contributed to almost exclusively by US companies, to switch their DNS over to something that isn't ICANN-controlled.

legacy systems are mainly an issues for hospitals, and if necessary, the governments (who pays for these hospitals anyway) would afford a switch. the US is more vulnerable for something like this since their hospitals are private.

> The US has performed coups on foreign countries at least a dozen times. Other countries won't do a thing, as is shown by historical precedent.

the US performs coups in third-world countries struggling with stability. they have never attempted a coup in a well organized country with strong ties.

> Neither of those run their own DNS, they leech off of ICANN, and occasionally block things or modify records. Were ICANN to disappear, both would be in disarray.

both of these are building their own as we speak. for the very reason we're having this argument.

because as you say, everyone has the ability to switch away from US control if the US abuse it; which is happening - or rather, corporations abuse it and politicians aren't doing their job by stepping in to stop them. politics is like any other relationship; you have to give, receive, and compromise. if you don't, you risk alienating your allies and lose your relationship.

I don't have the economy to run my own server which would be more expensive than buying their 5-year subscription plan.

thats a very US-centric view. not everything is monetary, certain things are simply setup with intent of management and responsibility in a global world. DNS is one of those things, GPS another. do note that neither of these are exclusively owned by the US, but rather that the US owns the responsibility to maintain these services that we all use. even the dollar as reserve is a fickle thing that could change if the rest of us choose to. with everything set in place and the technology readily available, we could all just drop the US as our client provider and tank the american economy. we don't, because shit like this isn't supposed to happen, but push hard enough, and it will. you already see russia and china going this route.

i want to like StandardNotes but they basically force you to use the 5 year plan and it's much too expensive a cost to pay straight up (but i could and would use them if they slimmed it down to an annual charge, maybe even bi-annual, the current annual charge is overpriced tho). Bearapp is by far my favorite both by design, cost, stability and features, but I've left the Apple echosystem and their webapp isn't available yet and probably a long way off.

i guess, for us who can't afford StandardNotes, we're stuck with Joplin. bad phone app, no web app. but it has decent features and CLI support.