Re: Krugman looks back from 2096

From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 13 2000 - 11:37:25 MDT


Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> > I'll side with Krugman here; yours is a nanosanta scenario where all
> consumer
> > goods are as cheap as wheat. Krugman forsees progress in the cost of
> ordinary
> > consumer goods, but the same sort of progress we have seen. So I'd bet he
> > wouldn't expect a nanosanta tech to be available in a century (if ever). He
> > might be wrong about that, but if so it's not because of bad economics.
>
>Its doesn't necessarily require a nanosanta at all. normal scale
>autoreplicators/automated refinery/assembly processors are sufficient to bring
>the cost of cars, houses, refrigerators, stoves, and microwave ovens down to a
>commodity/disposable cost range:
>Homes that are inflatable with a hardening structural foam can be mass
>produced
>as easily as air matresses. ... Basic cars should be as inexpensive as
>bicycles
>are.... What is expensive is energy, ... Just as with starvation and
>malnutrition,
>the problem is ... with the tyranny of the governments ...

You are living in more of a fantasy world than I realized.
I don't think we can have a productive conversation now. Take care.

Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323



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