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A major aim would probably be to abolish currency.

• pathy 13y ago
  Back to a bartering system? I don't know about you but I much rather have a currency than having to trade my homegrown tomatoes for my neighbor's wheat. I mean, currency is a lot more efficient than bartering, I thought hackers liked efficiency?
  • teawrecks 13y ago
    So you think our current monetary system is the most efficient system possible?
    • pathy 13y ago
      Probably not, but it sure is more efficient than bartering and if you don't barter then you will have to have some kind of currency.
  • dbond 13y ago
    Only if you retain the concept of having to buy things. Removing currency would be a very slow process but once you get past the behaviour and economic issues presented I think this lines up with hacker values quite nicely. Everyone would have the ability to create because they want to not because they need to.
    • ameister14 13y ago
      That only works post-scarcity, a point that we have not and will not reach.
      • dbond 13y ago
        Hence the slow process, this is the problem with currency and money in general, by design it can store debt indefinitely allowing profits which is incentive to create scarcity.
        • ameister14 13y ago
          Except that debt exists without currency, so removing currency won't solve the issue.
          • dbond 13y ago
            Debt exists because of scarcity. Removal of currency/money and the concept of personal profit can be used to create abundance of our needed resources (food, water and shelter). This isn't magically caused by the removal of currency but by the changes in behaviour that tag along. In agriculture for example, the current business goals are like any other, the most profit with the least expenditure. In an environment where the concept of profit is foreign the goal becomes how do we feed the most people with the resources available. This would be a very different environment to what we have now, there would be a whole host of other changes to support this. It would be an extremely long process to ween off the concept of money/debt and create the infrastructure for something like this but I believe it is very possible.
            • ameister14 13y ago
              Let's say you get rid of currency. What incentive do farmers then have to produce enough food for everyone? How does that produce more water? Why would the goal become 'how do we feed the most people with the resources available?' Wouldn't it be: 'how can I gain the most advantage from the resources I possess?' With or without currency, that remains the goal.
              • dbond 13y ago
                Water was just listed as one of the items we need to survive as opposed to something we want, we pretty much already have it in abundance in the first world. I'll admit I used to have the same view on this, where is the incentive? Why would someone do something without this immediate reward system? But it is this problem which I think would create the best (or at least most interesting) results. Without immediate reward the farmer will stop farming, why should he keep working for others? Agriculture then becomes a problem for society to solve in the most efficient way possible instead of a status quo job for a few individuals. In going back to the original point of this page, imagine the hacker community's response to that, a real, important problem to solve. So to answer your last question, with the lack of currency/money there is no difference between them, the only form of advantage to be gained is in your social standing (interesting implications on leadership here), using your skills to help others and solve societies problems is your only way to gain any advantage over others.
  • deleted 13y ago
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