On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 7:21 PM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
Jimmy Wales states that he is a great fan or even follower of Ayn Rand's philosophy.
What would Ayn Rand think about Wikipedia?
Scary as it may sound, I actually thought about this question before.
Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, demands a clear, unbiased view of reality to make decisions. An encyclopedia with a NPOV would very well match that goal.
On the other hand, altruism (giving away things for free) is very much frowned upon, as it biases the "success metrics" where everyone has exactly what he worked for (please correct me if I got this wrong). That would seem to conflict with thousands of volunteers giving away their time and knowledge for free.
So, IMHO, Wikipedia itself, as an encyclopedia, should be well in line with her teachings, whereas the process that fuels it is not.
My 2c, Magnus