While Christmas has become synonymous to major shopping sprees, it is in fact a time when most economists are all too glad to spend a few days away from their lucid dreams of free market economics. Indeed, the rest of the year provides enough opportunity for thorough analysis. Spend some time on the internet and you may realize that it can be Christmas whenever you want it to be. Technology is changing the rules of the game and with certain goods (namely the digital ones), the very notion of transaction cost or ownership is far to be seen.
With cheap high speed internet, personal storage and computing and an almost virtual absence of governance, we are effectively living in a digital state of nature (see Hobbes). This is consequentially affecting the way we consume and produce goods and services in a profound manner. Well....
"If knowledge is power, then, technology must be empowering"
Just hold on a second, or two: We are no longer living in an information society, but rather a mass-information society. At a growing pace a tidal wave of information is produced that even the world's most advanced computer and record keeping systems have trouble keeping up to. Plus, with digital storage capacity growing exponentially, quantity is prevailing over quality in terms of information. That is if one can even make the distinction because the very notion of information value is subjective.
Now some economic philosophy: Anything too much is not necessarily more valuable. For example, imagine the following; you have a box that is large and hence infinitely unconstrained . This means no matter how large your box (and the stuff within it) it does not get more "valuable" in an infinite environment (especially if other individuals can replicate your situation without excessive cost). You may actually be better off without that infinitely growing box of stuff. This is because you are constrained with finite time to enjoy the contents of your box; not to mention the headache of managing it. To put it in "Burgundian" terms; what is the point in tasting all the world's wines if you can never truly enjoy one. In a world with infinite goods/information, less can certainly be more.
Therefore, if in the past we were accustomed to dealing with information asymmetries, today, and in the future, it will be information overflow. Hence, the value of knowledge is not in knowing, but rather – like with treasure – in where to find it.
Happy Holidays
With cheap high speed internet, personal storage and computing and an almost virtual absence of governance, we are effectively living in a digital state of nature (see Hobbes). This is consequentially affecting the way we consume and produce goods and services in a profound manner. Well....
"If knowledge is power, then, technology must be empowering"
Just hold on a second, or two: We are no longer living in an information society, but rather a mass-information society. At a growing pace a tidal wave of information is produced that even the world's most advanced computer and record keeping systems have trouble keeping up to. Plus, with digital storage capacity growing exponentially, quantity is prevailing over quality in terms of information. That is if one can even make the distinction because the very notion of information value is subjective.
Now some economic philosophy: Anything too much is not necessarily more valuable. For example, imagine the following; you have a box that is large and hence infinitely unconstrained . This means no matter how large your box (and the stuff within it) it does not get more "valuable" in an infinite environment (especially if other individuals can replicate your situation without excessive cost). You may actually be better off without that infinitely growing box of stuff. This is because you are constrained with finite time to enjoy the contents of your box; not to mention the headache of managing it. To put it in "Burgundian" terms; what is the point in tasting all the world's wines if you can never truly enjoy one. In a world with infinite goods/information, less can certainly be more.
Therefore, if in the past we were accustomed to dealing with information asymmetries, today, and in the future, it will be information overflow. Hence, the value of knowledge is not in knowing, but rather – like with treasure – in where to find it.
Happy Holidays
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