Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Internet is Star Trek Technology

In the future of Star Trek, Earth is a utopia where technology satisfies everyone's needs and desires. There is no money because nothing is scarce. There is no business because nothing is exploitable. In short, Star Trek technology makes people happier while also making capitalism obsolete. On the TV show, they rarely went into much depth about this, so there are some logical holes. How does their government work? Would we ever really run out of things to buy and sell? Does Captain Sisko's father run a restaurant simply because he wants to? How do the Ferengi continue to be unapologetically capitalist when they have all the same technology? These issues aside, the premise is a sound one - technology removes limitations from our lives, and businesses which exist to exploit those limitations inevitably die off.

The internet is the Enterprise's copy machine. It makes copies of anything, for anyone, in any quantity. A lot of money was made in the 20th century by selling copies, but in the 21st, copying information is a basic fact of life. Trying to corner the market on digital copies now is like trying to corner the market on oxygen. I'm not sure what replaces the old business model, but ignoring change is not an option.

The two things to note here are A: Star Trek technology improves life for humanity in general, and B: Star Trek technology makes business models obsolete. Maybe I watched too much Star Trek, but I think it's only a matter of time before A makes us forget that we had any concerns over B.

Ps. Another good sci-fi allegory for the internet age is The Stars My Destination.

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