> It's a structural problem in our socio-technical system.
it has always been like this, has it not? almost by definition the more resources you have the more power you have. this is how the universe works.
it has always been like this, has it not? almost by definition the more resources you have the more power you have. this is how the universe works.
What does this mean? Trade means money has been transnational for thousands of years, at least since the Iron Age, or if you’re more expansive and include non-coined money, since the Bronze Age, with the globalized trading societies around the Mediterranean.
And that's just what I can do from my Etrade account. It's even more effortless if you have teams of accountants in various jurisdictions pushing paper around for you.
Once upon a time only landowners were able to vote. Eventually that changed as the powerful realized that it was in their interest to share power, because they are vastly outnumbered and can have their riches taken away from them. It feels like we're getting closer and closer to today's rich classes having to learn that lesson again.
I'm intrigued. What is a paradigm to replace money?
Musk is predicting that in around 10 years' time money would no longer be relevant, but doesn't have a framing of what would make up for the things that money does. I think he misunderstands money.
A huge pile of gold isn’t inherently powerful, you need someone willing to accept gold to do what you want. They would also generally be intimately involved in doing the thing, so you paid premiums for dangerous or unpalatable work.
These days technology lets you turn resources into planes, tanks, drones, etc in a way where 100 soldiers with limitless resources probably beat 1000 with a constrained supply line pretty consistently.
You see the same with domestic conflict. Once upon a time, finding and tracking down revolutionaries was a tedious, labor-intensive process that usually resulted in failure. Now those resources can be converted into surveillance that is much more effective, and much less reliant on another human being willing to help.