Totalitarian regimes take note, you can buy up all the words in every language and change their meanings as you wish. Get in while the prices are low. Flip the dictionary for a profit to the dictator next door the next time you have lunch.
And look out for our next product, colornomics, where you can buy and sell combinations of light, create your own unique color and license it to others to use.
Honestly, I find this horrifying. Why take one of the few decently commons-producible information goods and enclose it with a pay-for-play economy? What is the possible benefit to society?
How is disambiguation handled? Many words can mean several things:
Cabinet (storage or govt body)
Keyboard (for typing, or music instrument)
Remote (controller device or distant/far away)
Also any word that can be used as e.g. either a noun or a verb
Etc...
And could words across languages be linked to the same definition? Seems like there are a lot of edge cases that make this type of application more complex than the site indicates
IMO that's a really poor strategy. Assuming people use this product, it will alienate anyone who comes later on after all common words have been bought up (or even the owner of a word who would like to use it for two different meanings).
More generally, it's an inaccurate model of language, because it assumes that every word has a single definition - categorically false.
It's hard to be sure wether language like the used on this site is a joke or not. But the one thing I really hope is that people will not overwhelming use this product.
I know this was a few days ago, but I'm curious, what utility do you see for this dapp? I'm trying to wrap my head around the economics. Will properly defined words be more valuable?
Personally, I could see the words being used as building blocks for semantic programs, eg public APIs or smart contracts, or maybe even formal documents (real estate, law, etc). But that kinda only works when you can properly disambiguate words.
Swearconomy - economized dictionary of swear words and dirty language. Words and their meanings are auctioned. I expect to make a lot of money on Santorum.
If you own the language to communicate, you can change meaning to suit your own needs at the time.
Consider rebranding, common in the business world. Once upon a time, there was Blackwater, a company of mercenaries who committed acts of questionable ethics/morality. Several name changes later, the same company exists under a new name, disassociated from those acts, but generally appearing to be a new entity.
They are now named Academi, and were briefly called Xe Services after renaming from Blackwater.
The talk page is amusing: the current owners of Academi are trying to get their history rewritten on Wikipedia, because “Academi (ACADEMI), which is a Constellis company, was formed by a group of investors in 2010, who purchased certain assets from Blackwater”.
I think they were active in Yemen the past few years.
And look out for our next product, colornomics, where you can buy and sell combinations of light, create your own unique color and license it to others to use.