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

[Brian Atkins]

BillK wrote:
> 
> So our magic machines will have to support a non-working population.
> How? Everybody on Social Security?
> 

No. Rather than everyone a worker for someone else, or everyone getting free 
money dropped by government helicopters, I would suggest considering the idea 
that more and more people need to start considering becoming capitalists.

Why moan about having to work for some other factory owner, or losing your job 
to a robot, when you may be able to take advantage of rapidly increasing 
technological-capability-per-buck to eventually own your own automated hardware 
or software that would allow you to operate your own company.

Everyone, start saving up a down payment for your own robot crew now. Eventually 
it'll be like buying a car. In the meantime try running an Ebay business like 
the other million or so people that already make a living there, or come up with 
some other way to take advantage of currently available software, services, or 
new hardware tech.

The time of complaining "I can't start a business because of..." is ending. 
Excuses based on costs of equipment, software, or materials are going to fall by 
the wayside. Don't know how to administrate a company? There will be automated 
software to handle it all. I think corporate size is trending smaller and 
smaller, the long tail is growing. Almost everyone will have to consider being a 
part of this trend eventually. Start thinking now.
-- 
Brian Atkins
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/