Comments on: Future Wealth https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html Live to see it. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: blacknail https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-637 blacknail Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:57:20 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-637 I thought for a moment there this Virginia was posting to your blog. And I was all “Whoa”. But, alas, it is was all just a grammatical ambiguity.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-636 Phil Bowermaster Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:06:59 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-636 We = me, Virginia Postrel, and other important futurist personages.

Yeah, the new one. It rocks. Interestingly, though, I believe the word frack was used in both. Compare with the use of frel (frell?) in Farscape.

Interesting.

]]> By: blacknail https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-635 blacknail Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:39:04 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-635 Well, I thought this was a family site, so I was just mindin’ my P’s and Q’s. So what’s this “we” business, anyway? You got a mouse in your pocket?

BTW, are you talking about the new BG or the old one? The new one looks hot.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-634 Phil Bowermaster Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:49:14 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-634 Aw, crap. Blacknail’s gone off his meds again.

By the way, pal, you don’t have to use the ****’s. We all watch Battlestar Galactica. We all know the word “frack” and are comfortable with it.

]]> By: blacknail https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-633 blacknail Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:05:30 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-633 Oh, I get it. I’m dumb and you’re smart. I’m small and you’re big. I’m dead and you’re not. Sometimes, I’ll admit, I don’t get what you kids are up to. It’s a little weird. I can tell you what, though. I’m not with you guys on the life extension kick. Frankly, I think living forever is gonna really f*** things up. Be like a swarm of flies at a fruit cake convention. Basically, we’re talkin’ all-hell-breakin-loose pand-e-monium. Death is a measure. It defines existence. Frankly, I think if we go on livin’ forever, we’d get so bored, we’d start offin’ ourselves just for kicks. And let’s face it, some folks really shouldn’t be livin’ on-n-on. You know, like the sick-o’s.

]]> By: Stephen Gordon https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-632 Stephen Gordon Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:17:53 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-632 For long-term investments I can’t think of anything better than investing in potential life extension technology.

Why?

Well, if it works, people will pay for it. Think Viagra’s a blockbuster? You won’t need that drug if your body is young and buff.

It would be the most valuable tech in the world. And guess who’ll have the money to pay for it? Those who invested in it.

And, hey, if it doesn’t work you won’t have too much time to regret your poor investment. :-)

More seriously, investing in tech that could blossom into life extension will pay off even if life extension is delayed beyond our time. It’s just medical tech – and that’s not a bad area to consider investing in anyway.

]]> By: Stephen Gordon https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-631 Stephen Gordon Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:03:18 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-631 Blacknail/Phil:

I’d be tempted to say that when an ice-cream costs $5,000 our basic unit of currency will be different. Cents and even dollars might be too small to worry with – The “M” note ($1,000) might be the basic unit of currency…

Except…

I seriously doubt that we’ll be using paper or coin for currency anymore. And plastic credit cards will be gone too. Like other technology, our currency will be invisible.

Either way, you wouldn’t have to hand the ice-cream man a suitcase of money to buy your kid a push-up.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-630 Phil Bowermaster Thu, 11 Aug 2005 12:09:16 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-630 Blacknail –

It may all get adjusted down, but it’s the spending power that’s important.

Still, people can adapt to things. I remember when I was a kid there was this TV ad set in “the future” in which the husband and wife were shopping in the supermarket (which looked almost bare but with very futuristic lighting, and they were dressed in futuristic foil suits, by the way) and the wife comments that hey, look, top sirloin is only $10 a pound.

“Yeah, well it’s still expensive,” the husband says.

Think how outrageous it sounded in the seventies to talk about paying $10 a pound for steak. It was a joke! The commercial was meant to be funny.

And yet…

So we may yet see the $5,000 push-up. But when that day comes, it won’t seem all that strange

]]> By: blacknail https://blog.speculist.com/scenarios/future-wealth-1.html#comment-629 blacknail Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:56:02 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=367#comment-629 Okay, some I’m a little freaked. Does it really seem possible that we’ll all be sitting around with hundreds of millions of dollars in 200 years (let along billions). I understand the adjustment for inflation and all, but really, come on. Am I really gonna be buying push-ups from the ice cream man for 5 grand a pop? I don’t know how history has taken care of these currency issues, but it just seems like there’s got to be some point when everything adjusts down, so I can spend a buck and something that’s actually worth a buck. I don’t think too many people will complain either. Cuz if they’re like me, they aint got no money anyway.

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