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Why are diamonds so expensive? Because they are rare? They sure are, why is that? Oh, cause there's people who control the supply. What caused that recent spike in oil prices? Same thing. Why is software so expensive? Same thing. If the price can float, then the people who control the production can jack up the price. The only thing that stops most producers is competition. This is easily overcome by collusion. Where there is bodies that prohibit that collusion, we see markets. Where those bodies have been corrupted, we see price gouging. When those bodies start to actively sanction or require collusion, we see monopolies. There is no greater requirement for collusion than copyright - a law that requires everyone to maintain artifical scarcity, because everyone is a potential producer of goods that can be copied. By 2040 we may have a machine that can copy physical objects. Will we continue to require active collusion by everyone in society to feed our primitive obsession with scarcity? Or will we throw off these shackles and create heaven on earth?
QuantumG
yy says: abc LivingOnTheCuttingEdgeOfTheFuture-PeterWilliamLount says: Those are very interesting questions you ask. I like the "will we" part of them since it diggs into the underpinnings of who is in control and who exactly are the "we" in "will we". Assuming that we end up with cheap fabricate anything machines that are cost effective and can produce many products then the "we" becomes very interesting. There are of course competing "we"s involved. (Ok, saying "we's" isn't likely proper grammar for English but you know what I mean anyhow.) For instance, there are the "we" that make the fabrication machines. Then there are the "we" that mass produce products that are impacted by custom items produced by those fabrication machines. Then there are those that want to "control", aka, those people that perpetuate the societal delusion that they are "the government". They might want a say in things. Then of course there are those who run the big corporations across the planet or any subset thereof. These are but some of those that could be within the "we" you speak of. Naturally, not yet mentioned, are the "we" who "consume" products and goods. What happens when the "consumer" we end up with the power to create all of our own products? Wait a minute, didn't we used to have that capability hundreds of years ago? Or even just a couple of decades or generations ago? Wow. Will fabrication machines be able to create our own processors? If so Intel and AMD had better watch out! Open source hardware and fabrication designs will rule the non-corporate spaces where people built their own technologies. What about interoperability then I wonder? Hmmm... many choices as determined by the actual people in the so called market. Maybe then we have a true market economy that isn't being controlled by some system of control. As Neo found out in the Matrix series of films, there are many systems of control all attempting to guide our lives under their rules of mandate. What happens to power when people no longer buy products from mass corporations? What happens to global domination when people are in control of all their energy needs, all their product needs, all their food needs, all their entertainment needs, and all other needs as well? What happens to the current nightmare vision of society where the rich and ruling classes engage in planetary battle for control of resources? What happens when YOU can build your own spaceship and launch it to collect resources from asteroids in the inner solar system and bring that material home? Or build your own home in your own "off world colony with wonderful opportunities" that isn't under the control of some evil cash machine running peoples lives? What happens then? What happens now to engage a future that brings true the visions of Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame? A future where humans have solved their war and peace issues on the side of globle peace for all? How do we get there? For starters maybe ALL governments that kill humans - FOR ANY REASON WHAT SO EVER - are to be prosecuted for crimes against human beings. That would put a stop to the wackos running countries thinking that they can - with impunity - kill other human beings in their own countries and across the planet on some adventure. It's a grass roots affair starting with countries like Great Brittan and the United States of America, to mention but two of the almost two hundred power centers of people that think that they have the "right" to kill other human beings without being prosecuted. They undertake this delusion under the guise of "sovereign power" - a notion that will likely kill us all. A notion who's time has come to end. No human or group of humans has the right to kill ANY number of other human beings except in personal self defense. Anyway, the future is a path and a choice to make. As a movie of some fame says, our fate is what we make it to be. Take the Red Pill and join those of us who are free and creating the future independent of existing or future power centers. Join those who will express their power not just for a sustainable self governed future but for a peaceful Earth where humans live with each other and don't kill for their "beliefs" no matter which particular silly (or serious) beliefs they have. Marc says: yy: "off world colony with wonderful opportunities" <-- Don't you mean "a land of golden opportunities"? ; ) OP: Bravo! (For, once again, thinking out of the box and conventions. Are we talking about potential or are we talking about human nature?... This is where the results will lie.... It's my belief that no matter what wonderful opportunites we have, there will always be a large % of us humans who will ruin it because of their fundamental ignorance. That is to say, yes, I do think we will continue to require active collusion by everyone in society to feed our primitive obsession with scarcity... For MANY MANY more years than you would expect! <-- that is if we even survive that long! |