The utopian economics of "Star Trek" - How the World Works - Salon.com - The Diigo Meta page

• 10 Jul 09
  

  Suhit Anantula
  • that the economically important thing about knowledge is that it is 'nonrival'
  • Economists studying public finance have identified two fundamental attributes of any economic good: the degree to which it is rivalrous and the degree to which it is excludable. Rivalry is a purely technological attribute. A purely rival good has the property that its use by one firm or person precludes its use by another; a purely nonrival good has the property that its use by one firm or person in no way limits is use by another. Excludability is a function of both the technology and the legal system. A good is excludable if the owner can prevent others from using it. A good such as the code for a computer program can be made excludable by means of a legal system that prohibits copying or by means of encryption and copy protection schemes.
  • 1 more annotations...
  • • In these times of economic disarray and incredible environmental threats and devastating energy constraints (Where do we find the dilithium crystals that power everything, after all?), it might be hard to see that abundant Star Trekkian future anywhere else but in a movie theater. But the policy prescription inherent in Romer's work is that the best way to provide for long-term growth is to invest in education, in the training of scientists and engineers, in the production of knowledge -- new sets of instructions -- that benefit everyone.
• 13 May 09
  

  Josh Kidd

  This article looks at what young Spock might have meant in his learning chamber when he used the words "nonrival" and "nonexcludable".

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