[extropy-chat] economics of scarcity to economics of plenty

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2005 at 11:12:48AM -0600, Brian Atkins wrote:

> My advice at the bottom was essentially: get started now on doing that, 
> while it /may/ still be easier to bootstrap from virtually nothing.

The cheapest way of starting up is to shuffle bits, not atoms, of 
course there's also where most of the competition is.
 
> I'm not really sure it will be harder in the future... that's a complex 

I'm pretty sure it will be harder in the future. It is getting harder
by the month.

> question to ponder. I wouldn't count on it being as relatively easy as it 
> is now though.
> 
> All this competition sounds offputting I guess to some folks, but the nice 
> thing is if you can reach a high enough point (it's actually not that 
> high), you can hire employees (or perhaps some form of AIs in the future) 

It doesn't have to be a future AI, lots of business processes which ordinary
need a warm body in the loop are pretty automatable. Actually hiring people
requires a steady flow of income, and is opening you up to liabilities (unless
you're outsourcing to cheaper places, which has other dangers).

> Well, if it continues to be easier and easier to run a business, then 
> eventually almost everyone should be able to use it. If a function of this 
> forum is attempting to get a handle on future developments, and if we think 
> biz automation in all its forms will continue to increase, then again: 
> start thinking now.

Good advice, actually. If it's low risk, and you're prone to pessimism
another one is: it's not too late.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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