[ExI] quiet growth

spike spike66 at att.net
Fri Dec 19 06:01:33 UTC 2014


 

We always notice the big breakthrough technologies, those episodic new-thing
headlines like the Google car, and Siri, and all the splashy stuff.

 

Consider the quieter forms of growth.  Imagine you have a safe but boring
stock fund, or a sleepy retirement account you never pay attention to,
seldom check it from one year to the next, but become aware that it is way
bigger than you thought.  One long-shot penny stock went crazy and made you
far more well off than you realize, woohoo!

 

We watched the instruction videos such as Khan Academy and the other ones
develop, school stuff.  Most of us are long past school, but now, quietly in
the background, a form of wealth appeared: instructional videos on how to
fix things that break around your house.

 

California went several years with very little rain, but now it is drenching
us.  Five houses on my street had roof leaks, so the roofers were out in
force making a fortune.  I went and googled on roof repairs with my style of
concrete shingle and found plenty of good suggestions.  So I got up there
and did them.  Next rainstorm was yesterday, leak fixed, cost zero point
double naughts, my favorite price tag.  I already owned the little bit of
material required.

 

The existence of those videos represent both a form of wealth and a threat
to capitalism: they teach me to do stuff myself, so this is money in my
pocket and money not in the pockets of the local roofers, and not in the
pockets of the various government agencies which take a cut of every
transaction (not in this case, for the roofers are illegal aliens who pay no
taxes.)

 

All those home-repair videos came about in the last ten to fifteen years is
quiet growth of wealth; nothing spectacular or splashy, but the cumulative
effect is high.

 

With respect to transhumanism, I must think that accumulated knowledge of
programming in the general population is a form of quiet growth towards
Transhumanist goals.  Hope so.

 

spike

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