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That's what we currently have, the title asks "what's next?" Today's economy uses supply and demand and free markets to determine prices and allocate resources
by disambiguation 5y ago
That's what we currently have, the title asks "what's next?"
Today's economy uses supply and demand and free markets to determine prices and allocate resources "efficiently". You trade labor for capital, then choose how to spend it. The premise is that individual choice is fair and efficient and maximizes wealth creation the best compared to other models.
YT and Spotify however challenge the free choice model. They claim they can know you better than you know yourself, and do it at scale. They know what music you want. They know what content you want. If their algorithm fails, you will leave their platform for one that does it better. But once you subscribe, free choice exits the equation. Content is the resource and it is being allocated by algorithms. You choose to give up choice.
So, music and videos and other elastic supply is one thing. But what if algorithms can generally solve supply and demand? Can a central algorithm organize society more efficiently than humans can imagine or achieve through market forces?
If so, then it is also inevitable, because either through authoritarian edict, corporate capitalism, or national Darwinism it will out-compete everything else.
At which point, money is no longer a useful thing. Money is a vehicle for human choice. The algorithm has no use for such a device. It will simply mail you a voucher for your house, car, groceries, etc. you'll be getting this year.
A maximally efficient algorithm would determine what job you have, where you live, who you associate with, what your daily routine is, etc.
If there is a "next", it's one where a master algorithm organizes our lives in totality.