tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5728814948530385321.post1727320364721311763..comments2018-03-27T14:36:23.084-06:00Comments on a CONS is an object which cares: Stallman's Four FreedomsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5728814948530385321.post-28345519587230922972011-05-13T11:31:26.553-06:002011-05-13T11:31:26.553-06:00Stallman leaves out one important freedom, the &qu...Stallman leaves out one important freedom, the "Sqrt(-1)"st., if you will. He is an exceptionally insightful and intelligent man and thus I find it hard to believe that he has failed to mention it solely out of ignorance.<br /><br />He leaves it out of the discussion <i>because he helped to demolish it.</i><br /><br />The freedom in question is the freedom to <b>truly understand the program (and the computer it is running on.)</b><br /><br />We lack this freedom because we are stuck with programs and computers which <b>are not understandable.</b><br /><br />Well, perhaps understandable enough to get by with plenty of duct tape and slave labor, but not understandable in the sense in which a schoolboy understands arithmetic (or even the sense in which an engineer understands steel.)<br /><br />This is not really a political freedom - it is more of a technological freedom, like the freedom to have a mains socket in which to plug in a washing machine - but we were denied it (with Stallman's help, in his anti-Symbolics crusade) for political reasons.Stanislav Datskovskiyhttp://www.loper-os.orgnoreply@blogger.com