[p2p-research] Is the future of distributed manufacturing in China?

Thu Apr 29 04:42:41 CEST 2010

I also think that producing for the rich is not a good strategy at all for
creating sustainable economies, and I don't think this is what Sam et al.
are doing at all,

Michel

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:18 AM, Daniel Araya <daniel at levelsixmedia.com>wrote:

> So no. Don't entirely agree with Ryan. Yes the future is Asia, with China
> at the center. But this is directly because of that fact that it is a HUGE
> industrializing region. Part of this is post-industrial. That is, modular
> networks of small companies. But it is more tied to its growing consumer
> base and its capacity to replace the West in manufacture. Its certainly not
> about producing luxury goods for the rich. Thats not how the West built its
> fortunes. But serving the growing middle classes in Asia (and even new
> bottom-of-the-pyramid business models---  a la Prahalad). In other words,
> its ALL about industrialization.
>
> If advanced economies are going to evolve into genuinely POST-industrial
> societies, however, they'll need to re-invent their education systems. The
> key will be 'individualization' rather than 'mass conformity'. That is,
> entrepreneurs rather than workers. If political democracy facilitates this
> (which I think it can) then terrific. If the West continues to be
> politically deadlocked then China/Asia's technocratic model will become
> dominant. The major issue in the West is vision. The West is losing it. And
> Asia is gaining it.
>
> I agree that we are likely entering a new global medievalism in which
> capitalism (both big industry and small) will have greater cultural power
> than we see already (ie, many more consumers and producers).
>
> Best,
> Daniel
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Daniel Araya
>
> Global Studies in Education
> Department of Educational Policy Studies
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> Champaign, IL
> USA
>
> On Wed Apr 28 10:23 , Michel Bauwens sent:
>
>  Hi Ryan,
>
> I copy to Daniel, who has a similar mindset to yours, but doesn't believe
> in smallness yet,
>
> as for the redshirts, they are actually mostly enterpreneurs and they want
> democracy and capitalism, and they are battling feudal restraints. The only
> thing they are asking is for a free election, too much to ask?
>
> would you like them to just acquiesce in their loss of any influence over
> the system altogether, after having briefly tasted an enterpreneurial
> feature before 2006?
>
> Coops are fine and interesting, but you can't completely shut out politics,
>
> what is needed are integrative politics, because if you don't, they'll
> simply outlaw your coops,
>
> Michel
>
>
>
>
>  On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 9:12 PM, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>  On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 8:55 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>  thanks Ryan, very useful comments
>>>
>>> would you consider yourself an optimist or a pessmist (forbidden answer:
>>> "I'm a realist" )
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>  Hi Michel,
>>
>> You know me too well...I am a realist!
>>
>> BUT given your constraint, I am increasingly optimistic.  The Make
>> Magazine culture is rising fast and it is moving into biotech and
>> electronics at a furious rate...particularly in the Pacific rim.
>>
>> I think the future increasingly looks Chinese.  It is small systems based,
>> low margin and high tech.  It looks more like the Middle Ages in economic
>> terms than now.  Big firms are screwed.  They need major money projects
>> which draw competitors and their are fewer barriers to entry so Google and
>> Apple beat each others brains out and the consumer mostly wins.  Soon this
>> will happen in medicine and similar areas.  Big drug firms are dying for
>> similar reasons.  Everything is going small.
>>
>> There will be great poverty in places that "drop out."  The answer is
>> tinkering, co-ops, tech learning and investment, and innovation.  The answer
>> is decidedly not, low work, low merit-based sharing systems.  That will lead
>> to great suffering...as it has for some time.
>>
>> My advice to developing places is make stuff rich people want.  Brazil,
>> Switzerland, Northern Italy, Finland, parts of France and Germany, Belgium,
>> Malaysia, Singapore, parts of Japan and China, California, Vermont, North
>> Carolina, parts of Texas and a few others are doing this.
>>
>> Those stuck on anti-colonial and anti-capitalism modes of discourse will
>> bring extreme pain and poverty to those they seek to "serve."  Those who
>> build tech and know-how and then give it away are heros.  Our friend Sam and
>> his associates are the model.  We need to replicate that 50,000 times.  The
>> red shirts are the evil.  Their pain and hope is just, but their methods and
>> approaches are destructive.  The answer is the co-op in the Andies...work
>> hard, work smart, be innovative, have fun, tinker, make and enjoy a life of
>> the mind in a rapidly changing world where information is readily available
>> to all.  I think people are starting to do that...giving up on social
>> security systems, etc. and government hand-outs and overpaid civil service
>> and university jobs that add little or no value.
>>
>> Ryan
>>
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>
>
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> thank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
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>

-- 
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