From: Freeman Craig Presson (dhr@iname.com)
Date: Tue Aug 03 1999 - 06:49:45 MDT
On 2 Aug 99, at 14:22, delriviere christophe wrote:
[...]
> In what kind of society would we live if for each financial transaction,
> how little it is, a small percentage of this transaction was assignated to
> a zero sum lottery ? you buy a car, a TV, a gsm, a chocolate, a fruit, a
> house, a beer, a service, wathever, a small percentage of the price is
> invested in a permanent and fast lottery for you in an automated way. That
> would be totally enforced by law.
[...]
- For one thing. we'd live in a society where every little transaction was
monitored by some bureaucracy. We're too close to that now.
- One criticism of free capitalism is that wealth concentrates, since them
that has, gets. This idea would have the virtue of stirring the pot, and if
it could be truly (modulo modest operating expenses) zero-sum, would seem to
have some invigorating effect on the economy and society. However, in a free
world there would be a free market in lotteries, which would have exactly the
same effect without forcing anyone to participate.
> P.S
>
> an interesting and fun side effect would be to select the Darwin way a
> more lucky society, for sure we really need it for the future ;)
There's no evidence for "luck" as an attribute of individuals, and I don't
see any plausible way to posit a mechanism for it. Sounds a lot like "Psi."
If either were proved to exist, that would be a huge scientific revolution,
completely aside from possibilities of natural or sexual selection being used
to enhance any such abilities.
-- fcp@traveller.com (Freeman Craig Presson)
-- ExI member, geek-at-large, etc.
-- http://www.bhm.tis.net/~fcp/
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