[extropy-chat] finding old (and new) sf

[Robin Hanson]

At 11:49 PM 7/2/2005, Samantha Atkins wrote:
>If there was a sufficiently large pool of funds, say the size of the
>current amount spent for year on such information and entertainment,
>and a means simply to reliably count how often that information is
>used,  then the creator or rights holder would get a percentage of
>the total pool based no some function applied to the usage count and
>various measurements describing qualities of the information.    The
>pool might be maintained by a low subscription fee or through (ugh)
>taxes.    Thus you have a commons that rewards producers, is not only
>not being depleted but is growing richer and it supports maximal
>information flow. Thoughts?

Everything depends on the quality of the "measurements describing
qualities of the information."  Or rather, what we really want are
indicators of the *value* of the information to the people who use it.
Whatever the problems with the current system, it does ensure that
info which users perceive to have a high value is produced and used.
An alternative could be worse if it failed often enough to induce
the production and use of this class of info.




Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323