The economic future of this country rests firmly in the hands of geeks. I don't think there's very many people that will dispute that statement. Sure, the government will have some smaller or larger influence on the economy than it does now, and yes, there's a lot of industries out there that have managed to elude our geeky grasp, but for the most part, technology = more money in the economy to come. Smarter products, that's what I'm talking about. Look at engineering - an engineer with a computer can design a product faster, that can be manufactured more cheaply, that will work better and more reliably for longer, and... look, what I'm getting at here, is that products and services rendered by, through, or with the assistence of computers are vastly superior to those that are rendered without. This isn't always true, perhaps I should back up... products and services that are provided with the smart assistance of computers are vastly superior to those without. This is where the geeks come in.
I have entirely too much to say on the subject of future economy to get it all out in one rambling, and even if I did, I doubt anyone would make it to the end. That being said, let's move on to the first point:
Everquest is essential to the future economic health of our nation.
Now let me support that before you click the "comment" button and call me an idiot. First, some terms and definitions: by "Everquest", I mean the community of MMORPG games on the whole. Everquest is my chosen champion for the class of games, but any game will do. Economically speaking, Dark Age of Camelot and Anarchy Online are a generation past Everquest. And the upcoming Shadowbane will be yet another step forward. But everquest teaches important economic lessons by itself, and the lessons there are easier to grasp than the lessons of the future - just as the classic "have/have not" class struggle is easier to portray and grasp than the "real" economic world, which includes such shocking constructs as (gasp) the middle class!
Everquest can be seen as a computer simulation, not of the real world, nor of some Tolkeinesque fantasyland, but of the economy. Get together 3000 people, give them all jobs, and let them trade some commodities and you've got an economy. If everything were tradable in EQ, it would push the economy forward a generation, in my opinion, but the structure of EQ is simple enough that it would not survive it. Facts about the Everquest economy:
1) If you want a job, you have one (all you need is a pointy stick and a dream)
2) If you work harder at your job, you get paid more (you kill bigger things, they drop more valuable treasure). On the other hand, truly difficult jobs require forming some sort of partnership or corporation (guild), and the treasure must be spread around.
3) If you want to sell something, and someone else wants to buy it, you can sell it at whatever price they're willing to pay (with the advent of the bazaar, you can trade with other players 24 hours a day if you desire, without being at your computer - the bazaar allows for instant searching of all items up for sale)
4) If you charge more than someone else, who is trying to sell an identical item at the same time, you won't sell it until the other person sells theirs first.
Those are the good things, the properties that I would hope any reasonable economy of the future would have. Here's the not so good things, or as I like to think about them, "simplifications":
1) Everything is new - products never, ever decay. So if you buy something, you can resell it in mint condition years later. However, point (4) makes what I like to call "virtual decay" a reality.
2) Technology is "bursty" - new products and systems of manufacture enter the world when Sony Online says so, so the economy gets a massive infusion of new technology every 6 months or so
3) Money never goes away - there are some so called "money sinks" in the game, but the cost of living for the average player is essentially zero, while your income is limited only by how hard you work at it (to a point).
4) Inflation is rapid - if I had to put a number on it, I'd say the EQ inflation rate is something like +120% a year, but that's a very rough estimate at best.
All that being said, Everquest is a more perfect model for the economy than any computer simulation I've ever seen or heard about, if for no other reason, because the 3000 robots that play at any one time on a server are real, live people. Companies (we call them "guilds") are formed for mutual profit and protection, and compete in a violent world, but ultimately individuals are the ones that add all the value to the economy. Future MMO games will introduce some intelligent total economy management (Shadowbane), which will make help to reduce the emount of inflation. Other MMOs (Galaxies, Shadowbane again), will introduce investment to greater or lesser extents, and allow the construction of factories, homes, and even whole cities. Galaxies in particular will be interesting to see, as it will allow you to hire NPC factories to produce products you design, with materials you mine or purchase, and then hire more NPCs to sell them to the populace. Very soon, perhaps not in the Galaxies generation, but perhaps in the generation after that, some economist is going to start playing the game, and realize the incredible potential for developing and testing economic theories and business plans in a virtual world, but with real people. Hopefully it goes the other way - hopefully that rare person in Galaxies who opens a whole chain of factories and succeeds through his own hard work, engineering skill, and salesmanship will realize that what works in MMO may very well work in the real world too.
Geeks will provide the infrastructure for the economy of the future. It's up to the MMO players to figure out what to do with it.
I started a new job recently, and took it largely on the assurances of friends, and the assumptions that said friends knew what they were talking about. I'd like to believe them... I still want to believe them, and hope instead that the last few weeks have just been an incredibly unlikely series of events. At least, it sounds good when people say things about your new company like "They take care of their people" and "You have to really screw up to get fired"
My department has been playing survivor.
I don't mean that my department is running a pool on who will get voted off on the new season of survivor, I mean that every other friday, the department gets together and votes one of the members out of the department. Or at least, that's how it would be in a democracy. In reality, we all get a vote, but the Powers that be get about a thousand votes, making us about as consequential as a grain of said on a whole beach of corporate dunes.
And I'm not exaggerating when I say every other friday... thus far, if you average it out, I've been here 5 weeks and change, and we've voted off 3 people. Guess they should have done better at the challenges. My only hope is that I manage to stay under managements "paydar" long enough to keep my job until I can at least afford to find a new one. Maybe that's just me being paranoid, but I have a healthy enough respect for statistics to realize that this job isn't exactly the sure thing that I once thought it was.
Wake up Naginata, it's time to start working for the man.