I’m talking about this article, which discusses music piracy and its impact on musical artists. I’m going to come right out and say it…

I disagree with it very much.

And the reason why is because of Lowery’s advocacy of FARTS. That’s an acronym meaning “Forced ARTificial Scarcity”. It’s a concept in this very insightful article on Cracked.com: 5 Reasons the Future Will Be Ruled By B.S.

I believe that this issue is about more than people downloading/copying music for free. It’s about humanity as a species and the next steps in its evolution. And if we operate in the way that Lowery advocates, well… it won’t be any evolution at all. It will be, as the above Cracked article says, bullshit.

The thing is, the point of view that Lowery champions is one that our system of capitalism in its current form should be continued and imposed on new technologies. Really? Considering how badly capitalism had screwed all but a small minority of people lately, that might be a bad idea.

So, maybe we should let technology do what it’s capable of. But then again, I will confess that I grew up with the utopian vision of Star Trek. A society with no money in which all basic needs are provided for and machines do all the menial tasks. I’d love for humanity to evolve that way eventually, and Lowery’s view is one that would keep us from evolving toward that end. Of course, it won’t be easy. Music artists (and a lot of other people) will be like the proverbial carriage manufacturers after the invention of the automobile, and that will be a painful period of adjustment. But the adjustment would be worth it.