From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jun 17 2000 - 00:19:38 MDT
>From: Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
>
> > If/when we reach the stage where material wealth is equivolent to
> > information then, finally, there will be universal abundance. With that
> > will come the end of the need to work for one's living. This would lay
> > the ground work for practical Marxism.
>
>In a world where everyone is a trillionaire, the guy with ten trillion
>still gets the girl, the better spaceship, the asteroid in the better
>neighborhood, more friends, and more opportunities. The very concept
>of "enough" is ridiculous, with no place in Extropian thought. It is
>at odds with conservation of mass-energy and the desire to expand.
>
>Equality is for ants.
I don't think so. Once a certain level of material wealth is universally
reached it will become irrelevant to one's mating prospects or, more
importantly, one's sense of self-worth. Why would my girlfriend be
impressed with your shiny new space ship when, with the push of a button, I
can program my nanobots to build me one just like it? At that point you
will be judged on things like your creativity, passion, insight and
intellect; not how many monetary units you have managed by hook or by crook
to amass in your bank account.
True, as long as humans are unique individuals, there will not be "equality"
in those human traits that really matter. But in the mundane matter of how
much money you have collected, I foresee one of two things: equality or
irrelevance.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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