[ExI] OP-ED: The billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world

[William Flynn Wallace]

There would still be lots of trade in raw materials of all kinds, and
probably nobody would want to make their own mops, toilet paper, plastic
bags, and thousands more.  Foods from all the world would still be desired
- could an AI ever make a coffee bean?  I can't see how capitalism would
die out.

Remember, I do not understand economics.  I do think that that society
would feature a lot of barter on a local basis and some long distance.  I
am not falling into the totally self-sustaining trap - that's just
impossible.  Take all the chemistry necessary to produce many medicines.
You would need to buy that info to store in your AI and someone would need
to sell it (unless you think that everything is going to wind up on
Wikipedia and the like - free for all - this gets back into the
intellectual property issue).  People would still produce music and
literature and scientific findings......to be sold, mostly.  Now just where
does greed die out in my scheme?  bill w

On Fri, Aug 27, 2021 at 2:34 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On 27/08/2021 17:02, bill w wrote:
> > Only one cup of coffee so far today, so I need some explaining of why
> > those things need to go to achieve my little fantasy.  bill w
>
>
> OK. You're imagining a world where people (presumably you mean everyone,
> not just a select few) will be able to make their own goods, food,
> medicines etc., built to their own specifications.
>
> That's a world that doesn't need trade, which means no need for capital.
> A world where nobody can tell you what food to eat, what medicines (and
> drugs, medicinal or recreational) you can (and more importantly can't)
> take. A world where people are pretty much their own masters.
>
> I'm not saying that would be a bad world. But there are sure as hell
> plenty of people who would. People who would fight like crazy to prevent
> it. And not just people. Governments. Religions. Corporations. In fact,
> just about any form of existing power structure would lose out in that
> world, so would oppose it with all their might. People with power want
> to keep power, increase it. People with money want more money, even when
> it makes other people poorer (most of the time, anyway. There are rare
> exceptions).
>
> So you'd have to get rid of capitalism, get rid of greed, and get rid of
> the desire for power, in order for that world to come into existence.
>
> Ben
>
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