Re: is free, open source software ethical?

In article <0JidnepcXNYxxVPanZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Richard Heathfield <rjh@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Ron Garret said:
> 
> > In article <XfOdnW0X0NjfqVPanZ2dnUVZ8tPinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> >  Richard Heathfield <rjh@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > 
> >> Ron Garret said:
> >> 
> >> > So even Free Software is a
> >> > market exchange, and its authors are compensated.  The only
difference
> >> > is that the compensation comes in a form other than cash because
the
> >> > authors of Free Software don't want cash, they want freedom.  But
> >> > there is no altruism involved.
> >> 
> >> Similarly, mothers don't /really/ love their children. It's all to do
> >> with DNA. And when people risk their lives diving into rivers to save
> >> complete strangers, what they're really after is the Hero Badge.
> >> 
> >> Yeah, right.
> > 
> > You're not nearly as far off the mark as you are trying to be.
> 
> Oh, I can't agree with that! :-)
> 
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene
> 
> I read that book about 15 years ago (assuming that the wiki article does

> indeed describe "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins - you can never
tell 
> with wiki).

There's an easy way to find out you know.

> I thought it was nonsense then, and I think it's nonsense now. 
> (It was, in fact, that book that persuaded me, much to my astonishment, 
> that my stance on the whole Evolution vs Creation debate thing was 
> completely wrong.)

Ah, and here I was thinking I was engaging in a debate with a rational 
person.  Silly me.

> But whether you agree with me or not on that issue, the denial of
altruism 
> is merely a consequence of inappropriate reductionism. Whether people
are 
> altruistic because "God made them that way" or because it's an emergent 
> species survival trait in a universe sans point, the fact remains that 
> people /do/ (on occasion) behave altruistically. To pretend otherwise is

> just silly.

No.  Just because they *appear* to act altruistically does not mean that 
they actually do.  Just as the fact that the sun *appears* to revolve 
around the earth does not mean that it actually does.

rg