In this week’s podcast, we do the thought experiment of what happens in a theoretically super-abundant future: what things remain scarce and still retain economic value? Further, as we approach that point, where are the safe areas to try to find work?
We list all the scarce goods we can think of in four categories: scarcities of time such as Attention, Convenience, First Release, Novel Real-time Experiences, Originals, Potential, scarcity of space such as Land, scarcities of matter like Computation and Raw Materials, and scarcities of what we call human interaction like Empathy, Goodwill, Belonging, Privacy, and Status.
Please help us add to or defeat the items on this list. What are we missing?
Relevant Links
- Decline of Scarcity article: Fourteen Things That Will Remain Scarce (and Drive Future Job Growth?)
- Kickstarter
- Cory Doctorow Predicts a War on General Purpose Computers
- NY Times: “A Comic Distributes Himself”
- Review The Future Podcast 003: Is Privacy Dead?
- Snapchat and Whisper, two apps with privacy features