> [!tldr] Solving any problem digitally should be, in theory, infinitely and freely repeatable - but the economics prevent that. Humanity has come up with solutions to things that you and I have never actually seen. This is a weird note. Bit stream of thought. But it occurred to me when using a couple of apps that I really like a lot that those apps have **effectively solved** problems I used to have. And - if the app makers so chose, they could just "go away". What's more - the solutions are actually infinitely copyable at no charge to the developers at this point. This is a bit hard to explain without an example. My weightlifting app of choice is "Hevy". They just came out with an algorithmic weightlifting program generator. It asks your goals and equipment. It asks what you have to put in. It suggests workouts. It suggests lifts, sets, reps, and even weights to use. It learns from your progress and adjusts things. This is all done (I'm assuming here) on-device. Now - is Hevy's weightlifting program generator perfect? I mean no probably not. But it's very good. And it's definitely perfect [[Enough is Hard to Recognize|enough]] for a LOT of people in a LOT of situations... but those people will probably never know about it. Or they will learn about it, but then learn the app is a subscription model (unless you're me and went in on the lifetime subscription while they offered it). If that algorithm and library were [[Open Source]]d, then we'd all have free and enduring access to an incredibly useful solution to a problem that faces millions of people. And that's just a tiny little corner of a tiny little aspect of life... and the developers would stop getting paid. So that's not good. I guess I'm just saying it's a shame that humanity has solved some problems that we'll not be able to benefit from. We have billions of hours of digital content that could all be copied for everyone forever. Every piece of digital media and everything the internet touches... it's all available to us. Or it could be. **** # More ## Source - self