Comments on: Capitalism needs you http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html This Blog Sits At the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics Thu, 17 May 2012 21:10:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Grant http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html/comment-page-1#comment-7636 Grant Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:11:04 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=1137#comment-7636 Liz, well said, and very funny. I guess the market can respond to our identity deficits and as AI gets better it will. This will provoke the solpsism problem (as above) and we will find ourselves surrounded by people with artificially inflated stocks of self esteem, people so divorced from the real exchange and determiner of value that they are effectively unplugged and more and more self fashioning. Beauty. Thank you. Grant Liz, well said, and very funny. I guess the market can respond to our identity deficits and as AI gets better it will. This will provoke the solpsism problem (as above) and we will find ourselves surrounded by people with artificially inflated stocks of self esteem, people so divorced from the real exchange and determiner of value that they are effectively unplugged and more and more self fashioning. Beauty. Thank you. Grant

]]> By: Liz http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html/comment-page-1#comment-7635 Liz Tue, 24 Aug 2004 01:10:37 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=1137#comment-7635 I left here to visit boing boing which had: <blockquote> <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/23/virtual_mobile_girlf.html" rel="nofollow">Hong Kong-based AI development </a>company Artificial Life is launching a sort of persistent, quasi-reality game in which a virtual girlfriend appears as an animated figure on your phone display. There is a direct relationship between her level of romantic activity output and the amount of money you spend on her. Actually, my people have a word for this sort of creature: ho. </blockquote> this seems to me some iconic form of marketing, an imaginary girlfriend. But the Japanese also have companies, I'm told, that provide rentafriends. I left here to visit boing boing which had:

Hong Kong-based AI development company Artificial Life is launching a sort of persistent, quasi-reality game in which a virtual girlfriend appears as an animated figure on your phone display. There is a direct relationship between her level of romantic activity output and the amount of money you spend on her. Actually, my people have a word for this sort of creature: ho.

this seems to me some iconic form of marketing, an imaginary girlfriend. But the Japanese also have companies, I’m told, that provide rentafriends.

]]> By: Grant http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html/comment-page-1#comment-7634 Grant Mon, 23 Aug 2004 14:19:42 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=1137#comment-7634 Leora, thanks! But isn't this what the market place is for, to tell us what our ideas (or products or services) are worth. It doesn't matter what we think something is worth, the world will decide that for us. (And thus does capitalism do the miraculous work of apportioning value, when we cannot.) And if people withhold their ideas from the marketplace, well, as the French say, tant mieux. Their valuative schemes remove them from the market (and a good thing to). This brings us back to the issue of solipsism, one we talked about before, and the inclination of a contemporary culture to prompt people to hold inflated ideas of their value. As long as they stay out of the marketplace, they will never know the "wisdom" it can confer on them. The cultural issue is clear: there are people who preserve their ideas of themselves by staying well clear of the world. But the economics one is clear as well: even in a world as various and multiple as our own, there is a way of finding out. Thanks. Leora, thanks! But isn’t this what the market place is for, to tell us what our ideas (or products or services) are worth. It doesn’t matter what we think something is worth, the world will decide that for us. (And thus does capitalism do the miraculous work of apportioning value, when we cannot.) And if people withhold their ideas from the marketplace, well, as the French say, tant mieux. Their valuative schemes remove them from the market (and a good thing to). This brings us back to the issue of solipsism, one we talked about before, and the inclination of a contemporary culture to prompt people to hold inflated ideas of their value. As long as they stay out of the marketplace, they will never know the “wisdom” it can confer on them. The cultural issue is clear: there are people who preserve their ideas of themselves by staying well clear of the world. But the economics one is clear as well: even in a world as various and multiple as our own, there is a way of finding out. Thanks.

]]> By: LK http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html/comment-page-1#comment-7633 LK Mon, 23 Aug 2004 11:43:45 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=1137#comment-7633 ...but isn't there a built-in problem here...that most people think their ideas are in fact *way* better and potentially more lucrative than they actually are? and these people would therefore would be extremely reluctant to "give" their winning ideas away for a flat fee. i think of a recent episode of ali G in tha US (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AZVFF/202-6205777-4305442) in which he tried to sell his brilliant idea for an ice cream glove that catches the drips to donald trump and other wall street VCs. i think this is far closer to how most people view their ingenuity. i understand the virtue and idea of working in an economy of ideas but my concern is that most people don't/won't. …but isn’t there a built-in problem here…that most people think their ideas are in fact *way* better and potentially more lucrative than they actually are? and these people would therefore would be extremely reluctant to “give” their winning ideas away for a flat fee. i think of a recent episode of ali G in tha US (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AZVFF/202-6205777-4305442) in which he tried to sell his brilliant idea for an ice cream glove that catches the drips to donald trump and other wall street VCs. i think this is far closer to how most people view their ingenuity. i understand the virtue and idea of working in an economy of ideas but my concern is that most people don’t/won’t.

]]> By: Grant http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html/comment-page-1#comment-7632 Grant Mon, 23 Aug 2004 09:53:23 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=1137#comment-7632 Steve, thanks, happily, contemporary culture moves quickly (like an arrow, in fact) so the deliverable can be delivered and renew itself at the same time. Grant Steve, thanks, happily, contemporary culture moves quickly (like an arrow, in fact) so the deliverable can be delivered and renew itself at the same time. Grant

]]> By: steve http://cultureby.com/2004/08/capitalism_need.html/comment-page-1#comment-7631 steve Fri, 20 Aug 2004 19:44:39 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=1137#comment-7631 I'm not sure I understand the intellectual property aspects of this business model. It seems like it would suffer from the Arrow Paradox--to get anyone to pay for your idea, you have to reveal it, but once you reveal it, no one will pay you. The only ways around this I can see are 1) if some sort of non-compete/non-disclosure form could be implemented or 2) if some key "ingredient" of the idea necessary for executing it could be withheld until payment was received. Otherwise, this sounds like a tough way to pay the bills. I’m not sure I understand the intellectual property aspects of this business model. It seems like it would suffer from the Arrow Paradox–to get anyone to pay for your idea, you have to reveal it, but once you reveal it, no one will pay you. The only ways around this I can see are 1) if some sort of non-compete/non-disclosure form could be implemented or 2) if some key “ingredient” of the idea necessary for executing it could be withheld until payment was received. Otherwise, this sounds like a tough way to pay the bills.

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