Wow thats a great analogy. What if you had a nano-replicator? I guess at that point we would have to be nearing the end of scarcity, right? Because you'd onl

Wow thats a great analogy. What if you had a nano-replicator? I guess at that point we would have to be nearing the end of scarcity, right? Because you'd only need 2 nano-replicators to turn dirt into just about anything. And I guess at that point people's motivations would radically shift as money was no longer required, since everyone would have the same 'means of production' (assuming the nano-replicator propogates, like everything else, and that the world isn't turned into grey sludge). But, until then, the people who make the software do need money, or rather to make software costs money and risk and the risk is undertaken with the expectation of making a return on their investment. Not in every case, but its usually pretty easy to tell whether something is for sale or not. Morally its kind of like the prisoner's dilemma. Its in everyone's best interests for people to buy software if they can afford it because it will lead to better software for everyone. But individually its better for pirates to not pay for the software because they get the software for free, and if enough people pay for it, they get the benefit of better software in the future. If everyone stole it, there wouldn't be any. Same for cars and whatever. It seems obviously wrong to me.