From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@netcom.com)
Date: Fri Sep 27 1996 - 16:38:36 MDT
> Well, there we have it: you don't want to address the fact that placing
> the means of production into the hands of everyman and making the cost
> of the means of production tend towards zero both completely undermine
> the existing economic structures by removing the trade that drives them.
> I don't need to *argue* that --- it should be obvious that trade is the
> lifeblood of the economy.
Maybe we can test this out. To me, the web is approaching the point now
where you propose nanotechnology will be. The means of production isn't
perhaps free but it's pretty low considering you get worldwide distribution.
Now there's web services coming out where you use their programs or
other services saving yourself the trouble of writing cgi scripts. Why
not take this to the next step: where whatever data you want to present
you get from somewhere else and put your own interface around it. Every-
body becomes a server to some and a client to others. You could run
the whole thing with info-credits and take the whole info economy off
taxable dollars. (well, maybe)
Perhaps it's an economy of abundance, but the marketing types are still
thinking in terms of an economics of scarcity. I'm working on a website
now that will list numerous physical venues (niteclubs, museums, etc).
Some of these venues will have web sites. The cost of including a
link to an outside web site is miniscule compared to what the marketing
types want to charge the venue for the link.
Does it make sense to compare a near-future information-based economy to
a later-future nanotech economy?
-Mike
> Rich.
> --
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--
===============================================================================
Michael Wiik Messagenet Communications Research
mwiik@netcom.com http://messagenet.com
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