Comments on Bob Brisco's Blog: Welcome to the Acceleratron

With regard to the acceleration of technological c...

2009-09-04T12:36:16.498-07:00

With regard to the acceleration of technological change, what we perceive is the leading bow wave of the coming Technological Singularity as it approaches us, presuming that such a thing exists, of course.

With regard to the connectedness of tangible (production) and intangible (information) goods, they are so intricately woven that they are inseparable, no matter how much we wish they were not. When you lose one aspect of a subject, you lose the ability to think particular thoughts. When you don't have the words to describe something, you don't tend to think about it. Basic human psychology that has been covered in dozens of studies. Losing the ability to manufacture physical goods has more of an impact than just the loss of a few jobs or a manufacturing plant conversely foreign manufacturing is more than the acquisition of cheap imported goods.

With regard to the desire for tangible goods comments, yes, we all have a basic need, and our desire for tangible (or even intangible goods) is based almost purely upon marketing, whether that marketing is driven by the "magic beans" (go look it up) of advertisers and marketers or the new old thing of social networks. Maslow’s hierarchy has been partially inverted (to the perversion of nature?) a few times in the 1st world in the past few decades, as summarized by Adams, as (paraphrasing) “Civilization passes through three distinct phases, Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, or How, Why and Where. The first phase can be characterized by “How can we eat?” (as discussed by the great Greek philosophers), the second by “Why do we eat?” (as discussed by Avi Shkedi, Dalia lama, etc), the third by “Where shall we do lunch?” (as discussed by most of the people around the office whilst I am trying to write code).” (Interesting side-note: most people spend longer in any given day discussing what they would like to do for lunch than they do thinking about their financial future in any given year.)

Read Tribes by Seth Godin (in fact, read anything by Seth Godin!), read The Dip, read anything on the Technological Singularity by Vernor Vinge, Kurzweil, et al. In broad scope Brisco and the commentary follow-up on here is a (very) short summation of all those ideas.

Was there a better example of the shift in power b...

2009-06-29T10:50:32.359-07:00

Was there a better example of the shift in power been the “have/have not” and the “know/know not” class than the coverage of MJ’s tragic story.

Little TMZ perceived as a “have not”, though using their skill, moved the “know not” NY and LA Times into a “have not” class in a matter of hours.

I think we will continue to see transitions like this in every aspect of our business and personal life. Businesses will move from have/ have not status based on their ability to KNOW. Technology will power know.

Those who do not get on the train (figure out how to monetize what they know) will be left at the station be it intellectual or tangible property.

How to do it? I believe that the answer lies in the new social organizations that are building in every aspect of our life and will drive how we buy, select and perceive tangible items.

I’d call them “domains of interest” of every type and kind. Can you say a thousand points of light?

Interesting note about tangible goods. As long as ...

2009-06-29T09:29:26.943-07:00

Interesting note about tangible goods. As long as we continue to move towards a world with fewer trade barriers, I don't see any problems with Apple's "Designed in California, Made in China" approach.

The dominant international trade paradigm has long been to extract resources in areas of cheap labor and abundant resources, and then add value in markets with more expensive resources and labor; all that is different in Apple's approach is the changing notion of 'what is a resource' (and even: 'what is labor') as global markets in labor and resources become more liquid.

Great, complicated comment...for an economy to flo...

2009-06-29T08:13:55.301-07:00

Great, complicated comment...for an economy to flourish, it needs as many and as large of comparative advantages as possible.

In theory, could the U.S. dominate intellectual property and essentially abandon the production of tangible property? In theory, yes. This has happened in many sectors already. But in practice, can this dichotomy continue over the long haul? This is far less clear and there's good reason to be skeptical. Intellectual property and physical production are interwoven; one would think that intimacy with one helps create advantage in the other.

I'm one of the old guys- I wrote my first comp...

2009-06-29T07:41:10.110-07:00

I'm one of the old guys- I wrote my first computer program in 1971. I can still remember when it was a mark of pride in a high level manager to say he couldn't type and didn't use a computer. I agree with everything in this post. I would like to point out a concern that I don't think is being addressed in our politics or media.

Ulimately we all need a certain amount of tangible stuff. Food, clothes, cars, computers. We have to find a way to get more American interested in using all this ability not just to make software and websites, but also to find a way to make stuff. If we can't find a way to profitably make electric drill and television sets and lawn chairs, at some point we're going to find our standard of living slipping dangerously. Has anyone thought about how we do that?