RE: STEEM: 3 Years To Change The Path Of Humanity
The Age of Abundance is a topic that stretches beyond the scope of this post. However, to answer your questions, it starts with a few premises. Value is what we ascribe to something. At times it is reflective of an underlying medium, others it is not. Stuff is valued at one price today, something totally different tomorrow. A big part of it is demand. Hence when it comes to crypto, usage is a large variable.
Will all SMTs have great value? No. Many will be worthless. Some will be created as an experiment with the intention of never amounting to something of value. Others will explode as the applications they are tied to are embraced.
As for the inflation situation, I believe that is a 20th century idea. Going forward, massive inflation will not be a part of the 21st century. We already witnessed the banks ease to the tune of trillions yet we went through a decade where inflation was not present, much to the surprise of the central bankers. Why is that? In my view, it is because we are seeing more of our economy coming under the laws of informational technology. Processing, storage, and software are going into everything. These are items that tend to go down in price over time. Look at all that was digitized since the advent of the smart phone a little over a decade ago. This is expanding at a rapid pace.
Thus, everything I see in the technological world, all innovations and develops scream one thing....demonetization. Over the next two decades, we are going to see the prices of many of the main essentials drop to almost nothing.
blockchain (and steemit) will definitely distribute the wealth.
the reality in today's world is that population has grown and resources have shrunk. no technology will be able to solve the physical resources problem. natural resources are in short supply and blockchain will not mediate this or will political representations allow it. Inequality is not just about money being siloed it is also about resource availability. all the money in the world will not be sufficient if we dont have anything to spend it on. also, there is a lot of discontent between the have's and the have nots.
in fact it is the essentials like (water, food, jobs and living space) that are under serious threat due to the exploding population. look at the mass migrations happening across the world. consider the serious disparity between countries in terms of wealth and technology.
I disagree. There is no shortage of any of that. There is plenty of food, water, and living space. We could occupy half the planet and leave the rest uninhibited. The same is true with food. We have more than enough food to feed the world. The western countries throw out about 1/4 of all food they buy.
The problem is distribution of these resources. Technology is changing all this. Desalination products are falling like a rock...the problem is energy is still costly (and unevenly distributed) at this point. Renewable energy (along with nuclear fusion) will alter that. Vertical farming and in vitro meats are altering the landscape of food.
So technology is going to change a great deal of the physical which, by spreading wealth around with crypto, as an example, will enable these countries and individuals to tap into this technology.
here is the world in 2011:
so more human impact, more resource usage and wastage
want to talk about resource wastage?
we are currently in ecological deficit:
while the world is producing enough (3Kcals per day), the redistribution of food remains a pipe dream due to prohibitive costs, no perishable storage, political boundaries and total lack of applicability in all dietary metrics.
let me give you an example: india has a mango suprlus. but the problem is that mango needs to be consumed as a tropical fruit.
USA has a meat surplus while Bangladesh and India are the lowest consumers of meat because they are primarily vegetarian. naturally weather and environment play a large role in applicability and nutrition.
blockchain will solve many technological problems but it will not solve world hunger or social inequalities.
blockchain is a technology with the potential for a vast footprint. It is however a technology that can be controlled by a few people. i think that discussion is for another time.
i sincerely hope that blockchain will solve the world's resource scarcity problems but there is no evidence today to show that it could be possible.
I appreciate the response—one thing that I'm going to have to commit a lot more focus and brainpower to before I can even feign understanding is how the technological will interact with the organic.
As our world grows and becomes more sophisticated technologically, our organic world is being simultaneously stressed and depleted. My mind intuitively gravitates not towards the idea of impending demonetization, but of the return to a physically-backed currency; not by precious metals—whose value is purely psychological—but backed by some "standard necessity." Something like water—we're worth X amount because we control and have access to the corresponding amount of water.
How will the growing technological and intellectual world interact with our simultaneously depleting tangible world?
Technology is answering that.
To use your example of water....there is plenty of water on the planet. What is lacking is clean drinking water. Hence cleaning up the water and/or desalinating the water is the challenge. There is no lack of water, just cost effective ways to making it drinkable. This is being worked on.
What you term depleting is on the way out.
Fossil fuels? In 30 years will rarely be used.
Food? As mentioned above technologies such as vertical farming and in vitro meats are just a couple of answers there.
Land? Not even close to covering 1/2 the planet.
Think of all the things used in the past that are diminishing.
Paper...down 50% in the US since 2009...
Music and video...was passed around on plastic, now streamed.
Screens...we use a lot of resources today on them...tomorrow, they will be holograms (or some other technology).
Autonomous technology will reduce the number of cars.
There is no doubt we are wasteful destructive beings. That said, there is now a reason why things are changing...it is now economically wise to be ecologically friendly. Renewable energy placements are jumping because the prices plummeted.
They are one in the same when you think about it. Microsoft was able to store data on organic material. Biology is now under the law of IT since we know it is really nothing more than code. CRISPR is starting to make some headway in this arena as is Genome research. We are able to turn cells on and off just like bits in computing. Nanobots are already being tested to treat disease by targeting specific cellular regions. In time, these bots will be made out of the individuals own genetic material.
These are all compelling points. I appreciate you taking the time to read my comments and respond to me—you've given me a lot to think about.