X-Message-Number: 10893
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 07:19:42 -0800
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: For George Smith

George Smith writes,

>Money IS a medium for exchange in TRADE.

Ah, not quite. Money is what's generally accepted as a medium for exchange.
Whether or not it's accepted depends on a social contract, and that's what
you seem to be forgetting. All societies are based on implicit or explicit
contracts - even with nanotech can you imagine one that's not? 

So sometimes people will find it convenient to define a unit of exchange for
contractual services. The alternative being either barter or slavery, neither
of which scale well. Well, I guess there is one other alternative ...

>Just like I want you to read THIS communication.
>What amount of money are you paying me for it?  
>Zero.

No, that's not correct. Let's say the net was just you, me, a couple of ttys
and a wire. Great. Now you or I or both of us are paying for the wire, the
ttys, the engineering expense, and the electrickery that runs the whole
shebang. The only reason why this seems to have become free nowadays is
economies of scale; still if you're not paying your share then someone 
is paying it for you. Not per bit, of course; you pay for bandwidth - the
convenience of being able to read or write bits - and for transmission 
quality - burstiness and so forth. But far from zero.


>The concept of exchange first requires the concept of limited resources - 
scarcity.

No, it doesn't. It requires the concept of limited access to resources -
inconvenience. You, George, are right now quite at liberty to fly to the
moon. You have all the resources - scrap iron, seawater, sunshine and 
the ability to engineer - that you need to do this. It's just extremely 
inconvenient, and ergo, extremely expensive.

Now when nanotech arrives this won't be inconvenient at all. Fly to the
moon on gossamer wings and no one will think twice about it. But if you
decide when you arrive to turn the thing into a great ball of green cheese
you'll find others who'd rather it become ducks, or a ball bearing factory,
or a generation ship. You can't all have your way; some of you will be
inconvenienced. And them that's inconvenienced will want to be compensated -
they'll want to be able to inconvenience other folk to the same degree. If
you don't have to compensate them, then life is just going to get more
and more inconvenient for them ...

>Looks to me like there's plenty to work with out there!
>Maybe even infinite.

Good. You go and work with the infinite. No, not that bit, that's mine. No,
not that bit either. No, George, give me that back. No George. That's my
planet George. No George. You can't have that one. Just keep moving. What,
can't move faster than the speed of light? How inconvenient for you. Never
mind, your troubles will soon be over. Very important work I'm doing 
here George. Look, nothing personal, but you will be assimilated. Oh, did 
I forget to say, "resistance is futile"? Well, let's just take that as read.


>What will you buy in 2098 with any money I give you that you don't already 
have?

Perhaps the right to not be assimilated?

-- 6 of 1.

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