Sci-fi Economics Lab
some notes from the “scifi economics lab” https://scifieconomicslab.net/
introductions
talks on 2019-11-11
- Cory Doctorow, Tom Bauler and Kirsten Dunlop
collective notes from the talks
Cory Doctorow
- Peak indifference https://locusmag.com/2016/07/cory-doctorow-peak-indifference/
- navigating shifts from 'denialism' to 'nihilism' as an activist
- from awareness of issues, to awareness of possibilities
- democratic shifts in ownership of digital infrastrucutre, digital feudualism → cooperatives(?)
- democratically owned means of production AND methods of allocation (e.g. uber as coop)
- monopoly & oligarchic concentration → eg. https://locusmag.com/2019/05/cory-doctorow-steering-with-the-windshield-wipers/][Luxottica
Tom Bauler
- macroeconomic indicators beyond GDP
- https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-reinhart-and-rogoff-controversy-a-summing-up][The Reinhart and Rogoff Controversy: A Summing Up (re. public debt rates, human error & replication)
- focus on 'resources' is relatively recent in economics (circa ~1970) after long absence
- principles of ecological economics
- list?
- in creating alternatives, focus on what to replciate in existing sytems, as well as what needs to be removed/eliminated
various refs/further
- comment from M. Bauwens, re Chiang Mai → “hard to find ppl who want to work for money”
- “changemakers” (via rob) → https://www.changemakers.com/
- capital poor / labour rich → transitions in commons (ref. Ostrom)
- pluralism, anit-monopoly, anti-oligarchy
- parallels with emergence of 'ecology' as way of unifying concerns around existing issues, previously seen as disparate (e.g. land conservation, species, clean air, etc)
- is there a current set of concerns (re. concentration, ologarchy, monoploies, etc) that can be unified with ecology, complexity, etc? (e.g. climate change & concentration of pro-wrestling leagues?)