[extropy-chat] When will the equity risk premium flip?

[BillK]

On 2/26/06, Jef Allbright wrote:
> Such increased awareness will not inhere in the individuals so much as
> in the behavior of the system, driven by human hunger for
> entertainment that matches our individual preferences, information
> that serves our individual needs, and coordination/planning that
> facilitates our individual goals.  Such a rich information environment
> will tend to promote transparency of activities, including government,
> even if not by what it is made explicit, but by what is missing from
> the picture.
>
> In such an environment, politics will be reshaped from zero-sum
> conflict over issues of scarcity (material resources, information,
> attention) toward positive-sum interaction maximizing development and
> utilization of those same material resources, information and
> attention.  Politicians, as gate-keepers, power-brokers, and
> controllers of information flow, will become increasingly irrelevant,
> and be subsumed by a new type of change-leader, entrepreneurial,
> discovering new gateways and applications of power and exploiting
> broader information flow.
>
> Idealistic?  Yes, to a large extent.
<snip>

I think it is extremely idealistic to think that 'government' will
give up its powers easily. Just as there is a 'War on Drugs' and a
'War on Terrorism' which reduces our freedoms and increases government
powers, there will be a 'War on Nano' to ensure that government keeps
control of it.

Do you want terrorists to get a nanofactory?
Do you want drug dealers splicing cocaine genes into every common plant?
Do you want diamonds made in every garage? The government certainly doesn't.
That's why the government has to keep control of it. It's for your own
good you know. Protest if you like, but once the nanofab raids join
the crack shop raids, private researchers will either be in prison or
find something else to do.

Freedom? Don't be silly. You're a criminal.

BillK