From: J. Maxwell Legg (income@ihug.co.nz)
Date: Mon Oct 26 1998 - 16:17:08 MST
Max More wrote:
> When I wrote "The market price system encourages conservation,
> substitution, and innovation, preventing any need for a brake on growth and
> progress", I was making a statement that I believe is correct. But I did
> not intend to say that the market price system in principle is the *only*
> system that could do this. If a superior non-coercive, decentralized
> economic system arises, well fine. I don't see any sign of such an
> alternative but I do not rule it out as a possibility.
>
> Perhaps I can rephrase the above quote to be more inclusive. Again, I only
> want to rule out coercive, centralized economic systems as incompatible
> with core extropian principles, not possible future developments compatible
> with these values. I could replace "The market price system" with something
> like "Effective economies, currently in the form of the market price
> system...". Not terribly elegant, but perhaps someone can suggest a better
> phrasing.
>
If I was in the business of making fuel cells and wanted to look into
the techniques of making a battery that used platinum to extract
electricity from water it would become quickly apparent that the old
methods of sandwiching the platinum between layers of carbon was
un-economic because platinum tends to lump together and leave areas
without any contact surface. In other areas the platinum soaked into the
carbon and in these areas the platinum was quickly eroded. In order to
make the battery work at all at least fifty times more platinum would
need to be used just to cover the surface and yet the battery would not
last very long because the platinum is always getting destroyed at its
jagged edges thus clogging the system.
After further investigation I would find new methods that would form the
carbon surfaces into corresponding hills and valleys that would prevent
the platinum from clumping together and that by first coating these
surfaces with candle soot the middle layer of platinum would not only
not clump together but would be rolled into a thin film of atomic
dimensions. These new methods not only do not destroy the platinum but
increase the energy output. Later on however I would find that using
these information filaments to make new batteries I could do without
platinum altogether and use a polymer. Not only that but they could be
produced on an open source home PC, laser printer, candles, a few spray
cans and a microwave oven.
Unfortunately if I were in business I would do none of these things
because there would be no business to be had when it became known that
anyone could make the battery without my say so, which is exactly the
case and is why your National Security Agencies would destroy anyone who
acted against their vested interests.
Money has many of the properties of platinum in the above crude
manufacturing example, i.e., it clumps together in some areas and leaves
other spaces largely empty. Furthermore, corporations that use money are
the epitome of authoritarianism in that they don't tend to create
anything worthwhile that they can't control.
Sorry Max, but I see many signs of alternatives to the price system. My
own AI primitive, The Ingrid Thought Processor, for example, can handle
information far more diverse than conventional accounting systems and
yet isn't bogged down by concepts of wealth; - it is a factor but only
one of many. The fact that it is capable of channeling the information
conduits to create the above battery example is a case in point. I give
Ingrid away and will spend the rest of my life in its development; -
others are also. I do this to replace the price system and I fully
anticipate using an Ingrid-like system to create my own uploaded
lifestyle and would rather die than contemplate becoming an uploaded
capitalist. See why this form of mathematics is decentralised, will
allow any component freedom to circulate and is the ultimate in parallel
politics.
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