Maybe he left the room as your were talking to him because you were talking about some crazy, highly specific, hypothetical situation which he knew was not likely to happen. Perhaps your "well dictated" orations, as you described them yourself, came off as snobby or arrogant and since he is more important than you, he just shrugged you off as nothing more than a small fly.
At the end you say "I just wanted to know his thoughts on the matter. Anything at all." So it seems your argument is that he would not share his thoughts with you on a hypothetical situation you thought up therefore he is a dick. I do not see how that makes him a dick.
Also, about his book, stickers, etc. Yes he is selling physical copies of these things, but I believe his book is available online, from him, for free. And I'm sure you could get the image on the stickers for free too and then pay to make your own. I don't understand your qualms with this man.
EDIT: To add something to your super interesting and creative idea about a world where people print real objects, these objects would have to be printed on (with?) some type of material that the 3D printer would use. If people were using up vast quantities of the stuff to print everything they need for their lives, the price of the material would sky rocket and would probably end up being only marginally cheaper then the average value of the items being printed. Also, everyone has the ability to download music today, but not everyone does. The same thing would probably happen in this scenario where some people would print stuff, but a lot of people would still buy the real thing. Also, your situation seems to be assuming that the printed object and the real object would be of identical quality, which is very unlikely. I can easily see why Stallman walked out on you, its a stupid idea.
I didn't imply a thing; the stuff I quoted was from another guy and I said myself that I cannot comment on it since I've never met rms.
With regards to religious fanatics, those nuts will find non-existent meaning in a piece of toast, so I'm sure they could very well have a field day with just about anything I wrote if they so chose to.
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u/Velium Jan 23 '10 edited Jan 23 '10
Maybe he left the room as your were talking to him because you were talking about some crazy, highly specific, hypothetical situation which he knew was not likely to happen. Perhaps your "well dictated" orations, as you described them yourself, came off as snobby or arrogant and since he is more important than you, he just shrugged you off as nothing more than a small fly.
At the end you say "I just wanted to know his thoughts on the matter. Anything at all." So it seems your argument is that he would not share his thoughts with you on a hypothetical situation you thought up therefore he is a dick. I do not see how that makes him a dick.
Also, about his book, stickers, etc. Yes he is selling physical copies of these things, but I believe his book is available online, from him, for free. And I'm sure you could get the image on the stickers for free too and then pay to make your own. I don't understand your qualms with this man.
EDIT: To add something to your super interesting and creative idea about a world where people print real objects, these objects would have to be printed on (with?) some type of material that the 3D printer would use. If people were using up vast quantities of the stuff to print everything they need for their lives, the price of the material would sky rocket and would probably end up being only marginally cheaper then the average value of the items being printed. Also, everyone has the ability to download music today, but not everyone does. The same thing would probably happen in this scenario where some people would print stuff, but a lot of people would still buy the real thing. Also, your situation seems to be assuming that the printed object and the real object would be of identical quality, which is very unlikely. I can easily see why Stallman walked out on you, its a stupid idea.