evolution
By jp 22 Aug 2001
I wonder if the software pirating / file sharing community is a good model for evolution. so far it fits all criteria, with the code that makes it from one iteration to the next serving as the heritable material which conveys the advantage upon the subsequent trends.
<p>seriously, look at music, for example. posting mp3’s on web pages is quickly shut down, so <span class="caps">HTTP</span> is effectively “killed” by the selection pressure. however, mp3 is established as a better medium than .wav or .aiff. (though to be fair, .mp2 was okay at that point). then napster emerges and does well, until the applied selective pressures (law as the selective antibiotic) find a way to effectively kill it. </p>
<p>now with kazaa, gnutella clients finally becoming user friendly and peer to peer technologies taking over, the selective pressures have effectively selected against centralized, controllable file sharing and lead to the directional selection of multi-drug resistant clients. they’ve out-evolved the selection pressures, and what’s emerged is better, stronger, and more powerful than ever before. and still growing. if anything, attempts to shut it down just give the underground a kick in the pants to get better, by applying the do-or-die selection pressure.</p>