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The price of computation in a humanistic information economy ought never to be set exclusively by rote, but always be determined to a significant degree by market negotiation. We will never know for sure in advance how valuable a particular datum might turn out to be. Each use of data will determin…

The possibility of new kinds of personal assistants adds to the arsenal of answers to the question "What would people do?" In a world of thorough and honest accounting, whole new large classes of service professions should naturally pop up.

Any desirable alternative economic future must include an idea about a user interface that brings at least as much simplicity to people as acquiescing to a Siren Server does today. This means reducing the density of decisions people are expected to make to a level that leaves cognitive room to live…

Should a day arrive when it really becomes true that very few people are able to offer anything of value to anyone else--if everything becomes automated to the point that almost no one is really needed, but only needs--then obviously the very idea of a market must be retired.

I see no evidence t…

Someday it might be the case that your offhanded grunt helps an automated assistant interact more successfully with grumpy people. Decades or centuries from now, when the global or interplanetary cloud algorithms for language translation are so refined that there's only very occasional room for imp…