[jonshea]

In 1729 Jonathan Swift anonymously published “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick” [1], which suggested that poverty and overpopulation in Ireland could be alleviated if the poor would either eat their children, or sell their children as food to the rich. In allusion to the original, the phrase “A Modest Proposal” is used to introduce suggestions that are satirical, hyperbolic, and sarcastic. Not knowing the origin of the phrase, some authors use it to introduce proposals that are genuinely modest, much to the disappointment of this reader.

fn. 1: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1080

[brian_cloutier]

While this proposal isn't quite as "modest" as Swift's, I would argue he's using the phrase correctly. You think he's actually suggesting making ratbots that survive off pizza crust and ferretbots to find them?

This sounds like a mockery of the pirate bay's proposal, just as Swift mocked how the people of his time thought about the poor.

[heliostatic]

To be clear, the title of the post, "Pirate LOSS? An alternative ...", makes no allusion to Swift.

[xnxn]

While true, the submission title does, and the submitter is the author.