From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 14:50:54 MDT
>From: Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com>
> >However, at that point there will be no practical difference
> >between "rich" and "poor." When we have the nanotech to
> >effortlessly and cheaply create haute cuisine from raw sewage, and
> >diamonds from dirt, there will be no need for human production.
> >This will lead to its own problems for us humans who have a need
> >to feel useful and productive. But at that point there will be no
> >difference between a "capitalist" and a "communist." There will
> >be a universal leisure class searching for purpose and meaning in
> >their otherwise effortless and uncomplicated lives. Utopia?
> >.Perhaps not. But IMO better than poverty, illness and hunger.
>
>Your making alot of assumptions here, like the fact that nanotech
>will be universally available. The fact that their might not be
>sufficient raw material for everyone to build a Taj Mahall is
>another.
>
>What if I develop nanotech first, and simply use it to crank stuff
>out, but never let you have the goose that lays the golden eggs.
>
>If, if, if, if, if.....
Maybe I wasn't clear. I'm looking at this question from a long view
perspective. I don't think we'll invent nanotech on Monday and all the
world's strategic, social, economic and political problems will be magically
solved by Tuesday. But if you believe nanotech is possible, it follows that
eventually everything will get exponentially cheaper, and will continue to
do so until virtually everything (save perhaps terrestrial real estate)
becomes free.
Your scenario of one person, corporation, government or group of governments
forever hogging the benefits of nanotech to themselves is pretty
unrealistic. Once someone, *anyone*, has proven that practical control of
nanotech is possible, *everyone* will devote every available resource to
duplicating it. It will, after all, be *the* best investment any
corporation or government can make, if the originator isn't sharing the
wealth.
As to whether there will be sufficient raw materials, if you have the power
to manipulate matter at the atomic level *everything* becomes a raw
material.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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