Lee Crocker
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> No amount of technology or social structure will ever get rid of
> the drive to learn, to work, to achieve a little more than your
> neighbor.
cafedeli>>>I agree with the drive to learn and create part.
..I'm not sure economic competeition will be as much of a drive for
everyone in the future as it is today. <SNIP RE: FREEWARE) the future will
see more people who work primarily for
distinction and recognition.
>>
i agree with this, and furthermore one must really look at the original post as an anachronism *even today* in a highly creative culture. just look at the term "neighbors" for example. is a neighbor someone who you live next to in a house, or a person of similar stature. assuming it is the former, or either, listen:
with the advent of nanotech so much more will be free by our standards (though the actual price to humanity may indeed be very high). we are talking about nano here: which if done right means assemblers create everything: free food, free clothing, free transportation, free housing, even civic areas and ecologies can be created. perhpas even lives.
those childrem will not gow up needing to outdo eachother materialistically, and with no televised push for greed, consumerism and advertising, we will lose some of our attachement to the mere *value* material goods hold for us today in regards to status. If everyone can have a 'yaught at a thought', why would it make me better than you to have one?
so what's left to trade? our stories, our minds, experiences, our 'spirits'...
perhaps our emotions will become commodities, and highly coveted. emotions are information after all, and we share it today -- why, just like viruses -- it can infect us from simple contact with others. ah, and the senses too will be highly altered and perhaps there will be *sensory* trading and buying and selling. beauty a dollar a minute. hope equals two dollars. i'll trade you half a hope for one beauty. can you send me a case of wistful bliss?