Interest is not a component of every financial system on earth; it is silly to presume that it will be an essential component of extraterrestrial economic systems.
The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
101–108 of 108 posts
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get your point, but I don't think this answers the question. The first part of the question is defining what it means to be 'worthwhile.' Information itself does not have inherent value. If you send a colony information on how to create an advance polymer, but the colony lacks a use for it, the requisite knowledge, the requisite tools, the requisite knowledge to craft the tools, or the requisite materials, your tra…
That’s true. There would be a considerably higher bar for “worthwhile”. But I got to imagine that by the time interstellar trade would be an option, there would be some very valuable blueprints of autofactories and other goods, operating systems and other software with centuries of real-world proofing, and other stuff you’d like to get without doing all the trial and error yourself.
>there would be some very valuable blueprints of autofactories and other goods, operating systems and other software with centuries of real-world proofing, and other stuff you’d like to get without doing all the trial and error yourself
Trial and error might actually be faster depending on how long a round trip takes. Imagine waiting fifty years for the blueprints to arrive only to learn some packets got dropped along the way.
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do know that it was because of macroeconomic guidance. The money supply contracted sharply because of the collapse of the banking system in 1930-31, and the gold standard was too inflexible to allow rapidly expanding the money supply. The economic contraction for each country right around when the country went off the gold standard. In 2008, governments prevented the banking system from collapsing, and were able t…
> The economic contraction for each country right around when the country went off the gold standard. Classic case of correlation != causation. Also, it's very selective memory. Why did you not include the data point of 1920/1921 contraction where they did not go off the gold standard and the economy snapped back? In relative terms, the contraction bottomed out worse than the '29 contraction. This "recovered faster"…
There were lots of recessions where they didn't go off the gold standard. The contraction in 1929-1933 was so large, that going off the gold standard was the simplest option.
Unemployment responds to increases of the money supply. This pattern is quite visible in the macroeconomic data we have. Also, "employment" includes everyone who has a job, so there's nothing funny about the metric. "Unemployment" requires some restriction, because there are people who have no plans to enter the work force in the near future, such as college students, the retired, or the fraction of spouses that plan on staying home. If you don't like the definition the media reports, there's a whole spectrum of alternate measures that the BLS computes that you are welcome to look at, instead. Over short time intervals they tend to march up and down together.
I may have forgotten the lesson of King Edward II, but I remember the lesson of the Great Depression, which caused Adolf Hitler to come to power. He took Germany off the gold standard, and engaged in large fiscal stimulus, albeit for the grim purpose of conquering Europe. I also remember that Karl Marx predicted that the internal contradictions of capitalism meant that it was doomed, and how those claims looked like they were being vindicated in the 1930s, because macroeconomic stimulus was applied so late.
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#104Abstract: > This paper extends interplanetary trade to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: How should interest on goods in tranist be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theo…
I'm trying to imagine a physical product that is worth transporting on an interstellar level, rather than locally manufactured. It seems to me that the only thing that would ever be exchanged between solar systems, would be information.
The only physical thing I can see worth sending would be Von Neumann probes [0], essentially nanobots that could build things including more nanobots.
To get to the highest velocity you need a very low mass fraction. You need your ship to be mostly propellant. All the mission equipment would be constructed at the destination out of ship structures and raw materials at the destination.
If you've got nanobots that can directly construct anything you want you live in a post-scarcity Soviet so economics aren't terribly meaningful anymore.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft#...
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#105[deleted]
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#106Abstract: > This paper extends interplanetary trade to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: How should interest on goods in tranist be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theo…
I'm trying to imagine a physical product that is worth transporting on an interstellar level, rather than locally manufactured. It seems to me that the only thing that would ever be exchanged between solar systems, would be information.
I imagine high density data storage devices could be worth it, especially in a scenario of a colonized galaxy with a lot of background noise.
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've probably read too much sci-fi, but high-density computronium left behind by a fallen civilization might make it worthwhile?
What sci-fi would you recommend if I want to read more about this computronium?
A Deepness in the Sky and the related books.
Re: The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've probably read too much sci-fi, but high-density computronium left behind by a fallen civilization might make it worthwhile?
What sci-fi would you recommend if I want to read more about this computronium?
Beside the already mentioned Culture series and Deepness in the Sky, I can recommend the Revelation Space saga.