Open for Discussion

This isn't scifi. I referring to an evolutionary biological inevitability. You won't have to wait thousands of years for it. It will happen soon, within the next fifty years. The economy is a heavy, burdensome behemoth of a dinosaur that simply can't keep up with the pace with technological improvements. Not even the companies with child or prison labor sweat-shops will be able to compete (after the dawn of the age of robotics). And that's a good thing... a very good thing...

I liked the use of the term 'stakeholder' in the article. That term is the one that focuses on the heart of the issue.

It's important for businesses to realize what the coming years will bring: the ability (for anyone) to conduct business better and faster, at almost no cost. The businesses that lead the way will be the ones engineering ways to provide goods whose prices to the consumer continually decline, until the boast can finally be made, “...another item has become freely available to the general public, made possible by the clever combination of these processes...�.

The end of 'money' as we know it, will allow researchers to conduct research at no cost, and students to continue education at no cost, and people to house and feed their families at no cost. This will in turn allow growth at no cost.

Growth, in any optimistic scenario, will require efficient use of available space and energy. This includes using the worlds within easy reach, which means a lot of terraforming. Point being, there are many more important things we should be focusing on, besides counting beans. Hopefully it's a given that we should be focusing on how to be better stewards of the world we already have. We need to be able to focus on it, at no cost.

'Money' of the future will be something akin to Nielsen ratings... :)

I think there will always be things worth haggling over. Consider the example of a sold-out show: folks stand in line, camping out for days, for the chance to get tickets, and after that, free-trade of the tickets is free-trade, regardless of the convenient form of cobblestones.

I think businesses should concentrate on taking full advantage of those tools which will enable them to automate every aspect of their business's mission. The businesses providing these tools (robots, CNC machines, automated industrial processes) need to be hiring people, and training them to teach the newer robots and such (or generate programming) to perform ever more sophisticated (human) tasks.

Maybe the robotics companies can help subsidize people who purchase and operate fleets of automated Pizza Hut or Burger King or McDonalds vehicles (oh how I hate it when the human lifts the basket of fries out of the fryer before the timer goes off, because there's a long line at the drive-thru). Maybe some folks will compete for business with their own popular hometown recipes. Could be something as simple as frozen entrees, with a freezer and a microwave on wheels... :)

Actually, if vehicles like that, of various sizes, were zipping all about, and if they were all equipped with cameras, GPS navigation, standard wireless networking, and an embedded security protocol, they would be of immense value to law enforcement...

Ah, Utopia. Unfettered capitalism. Such a lovely idea. As lovely as communism or christianity, and every bit as doctrinaire. People create technology and people create societies in which technology may be used for good or ill. The choices we make, or more importantly, the choices we don't make will determine the future of this planet and our (as well as other) species living on it.

At the moment the odds are pretty good that we have reached, or are rapidly approaching a climatic tipping point that will result in enormous social and economic dislocation with a commensurate increase in human misery. Expecting technology to evolve as quickly as Chipper believes is hopelessly optimistic. Expecting it to be applied in time to prevent these dislocations is even more so.

Given the stubborn resistance of the developed world to act (rather than talk) to implement already existing technologies on the massive scale necessary for remediating the problems of global warming and it's effects; and given the inability (and in many cases the unwillingness) of the developing world to act in this regard means that the near future (50-100 years) will see at the very least inundation of low-lying parts of the world. The disappearance of some nations is likely. Redistribution and intensification of droughts and floods is already beginning to show itself.

All of this is happening now. And what are the unfettered capitalists doing to develop and apply new technologies? As little as possible. In almost every instance industries and their lobbying groups are resisting any changes to business as usual. Now why should this be? The problems that we see looming before us are obvious opportunities to create and apply new and existing technologies and to make great profits for stockholders in the process. Yet our businessmen, unfettered capitalists all, will resist actualizing these opportunities without government mandates --carrots and sticks-- to push them into it. Moreover, unless a critical mass of people demands that something be done, governments, responding to the influence of business, will fail to create either the necessary carrots or sticks to get things moving.

Friends industry will have to dragged kicking and screaming to change its methods, materials and goals. And even more problematic, our world-wide society will have to change its behaviors as will we as individuals. We are all stakeholders in our survival. Debates such as the one linked to above are sterile exercises unless they lead to real-world actions that increase the long-term profits (i.e., the survival)of all of us. I suggest that you don't hold your breath until your utopia comes Chipper. Instead I recommend investment in high elevation real estate.

(PS. Chipper come to the TFFE board sometime. We miss you.)