Time is the only real currency we have

Post by downshun » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

neilwilson wrote: post #163

didericis wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is easily wasted, though. The labor theory of value ignores this, and ignores the value of cleverness as a result. If I need to grind wheat for bread every day, I could spend hours a day working hard to grind it by hand, or I could spend a month or so to build a very basic water wheel/grindstone and free up all that time. The resultant bread is still bread either way. If someone chooses to spend all their time d…

That’s the paradox of productivity. You create a machine to make bread and all that happens is that bread gets cheaper in time terms once you strip away the money abstraction. You can see this by comparing production relative to something that can’t be automated away but is still valued over time - like a violin player. The machine forces people in the same business down to your level, but people in a less automated…

Post by choward » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:13 PM UTC

seventytwo wrote: post #39

Parameters of the universe are currency. Time is one of them, space (or area on earth’s surface) is another, and energy is a third. How these three things are used is what generates value to human beings. Each of the fundamental items can be traded individually, but money is used as a proxy for value . The most common trade is when a person can trade their time and their body’s energy. They produce some level of valu…

Post by smnplk » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

downshun wrote: post #171

neilwilson wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the paradox of productivity. You create a machine to make bread and all that happens is that bread gets cheaper in time terms once you strip away the money abstraction. You can see this by comparing production relative to something that can’t be automated away but is still valued over time - like a violin player. The machine forces people in the same business down to your level, but people in a less automated…

https://hackaday.com/2017/08/22/self-playing-violin-eighth-w... https://youtu.be/gA03iyI3yEA > can't be automated away

Post by torstenvl » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:30 PM UTC

allannienhuis wrote: post #109

gofarup wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s other ways to do it them having gigantic concrete bridges like Vegas. In downtown SF, you could put lower diagonal street bridges which would save an infinite amount of time for people driving.

Several large cities in China that I've been to tend to use pedestrian tunnels at many large intersections. It works pretty well - subway-like staircases at each corner, and nice wide hallway/tunnels going around the whole intersection. Occasionally with some shops. It has the advantage of being easy on the eyes above-ground. I can imagine in places with serious homelessness issues there could be problems, but the on…

Post by spking » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

fnord77 wrote: post #75

keiferski wrote: post #11

I’ve often wondered what society would look like if optimized for saving people time. Just some quick thoughts: - Crosswalks and traffic lights would become non-existent and replaced with more pedestrian overpasses, turning/merging lanes, and other designs. Waiting for the light to change is a huge waste of time for both pedestrians and drivers. It seems like we might get this eventually with self-driving cars. - Min…

> replaced with more pedestrian overpasses, vegas has pedestrian overpasses and they are a tremendous waste of time - much worse than crosswalks. A better approach would be to keep the pedestrians at grade-level and have car under-passes