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version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1 |
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oid sha256:e508034c0d55dd81d810e4378e704d40ceea3f408d7f4f16701ecbe966aeed58 |
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version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1 |
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oid sha256:9bcb60acc9ee0d4f2fe526d0c529e632b87fe4395a7967e7a4c4d4d6aca01156 |
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+++ |
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title = "Gift economy" |
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template = "post.html" |
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+++ |
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_thinking about products financed via donations, quoting Fully Automated Luxury |
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Communism_ |
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Is the future of capitalism getting stuff for free and only paying in donations? |
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You know, paying just because you feel morally obliged to, not because you get |
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any extra value. It certainly seems like that with music, news or software. Pic |
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related |
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{{ image(link='blog/gift-economy/gift-economy-bandcamp-screenshot.png', path='blog/gift-economy/gift-economy-bandcamp-screenshot--600x.png', width=600, alt='Bandcamp screenshot') }} |
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1. Let me make my previous question more precise and also sketch an idea I came |
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up with after spending too much money on Bandcamp and listening to some |
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British guys talk on the internet. |
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2. It seems that gift economy might work for music, journalism and free |
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software. But could it also work for other non-rival goods? |
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|
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3. Aaron Bastani, the author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism, says[^1] that |
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more products will soon become non-rival (consuming such a product doesn't |
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take it away from someone else, because there is an abundance of it, like |
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breathing air, since there is enough air for everyone). |
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|
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4. The abundance will be a result of a massive reduction of marginal costs |
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(costs to create more copies of the products). Examples are lab-grown meat or |
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curing diseases using gene editing. Keyword: post-scarsity society. |
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|
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5. Bastani says that we don't want a few people to own patents for these |
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technologies and sell the products for high prices (collect rent), but we |
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want everyone to enjoy the free luxury. To achieve that, we could nationalize |
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the research and fund it from national investment banks. |
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|
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6. Music, news & free software are products that already have zero marginal cost |
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and people are enjoying for free (despite patent=copyright enforcement |
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efforts in case of music). The difference from Luxury Comm is that it's not |
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nationalization but the gift economy who saves the day. |
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|
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7. So what if we don't nationalize synthetic biology and gene editing research |
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but rather finance it from donations. Manufacturers could then compete by |
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presenting the most moral and altruistic business (much like brands already |
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compete in their support of social justice). |
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|
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8. Next episode: How moralizing also saves the planet. |
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|
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--- |
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|
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To further clarify: What I have in mind is the particular music, news and |
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software that is free and ad-free and is financed by voluntary gifts. That's of |
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course minority of music, news and software, but it seem to be on the rise and |
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seems to be (close to) working for everyone (the creators, the platform, the |
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consumers). Examples are Bandcamp (compare to Spotify that indeed has the |
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VC-funded, exploitative, predatory pricing business model), The Guardian, |
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Wikipedia, Patreon-sponsored independent writers/podcasters, and all open-source |
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software. |
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If such a financing is viable in the long term is of course a question, but I |
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have some hope in it, because I think consumers are increasingly willing to |
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spend a considerable part of a price (maybe even 100%) for moral value. For |
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instance when taking a 150€ train instead of a 20€ flight or switching to an |
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environmentally friendly electricity provider. |
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|
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--- |
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[^1] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PugN3t2QvWs> |
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+++ |
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title = "Covid test" |
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template = "post.html" |
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+++ |
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|
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_a report on how I got tested for covid in Berlin_ |
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<!-- more --> |
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Let me write a report on how a covid test is done in Berlin. Maybe it can be |
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useful if you're awaiting a test. Or as a historic record. Anyway, there is no |
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moral to the story. |
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It happened more than a week ago, but I didn't have time to repnort, because I've |
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been enjoying life. |
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1. I found out I had met a friend who had covid, so I called the Berlin-Neukölln |
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corona hotline and was ordered into a quarantine. I asked for a test but if I |
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hand't, I wouldn't get one. |
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|
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2. A person from a test centre called me back the next work day and made an |
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appointment with me for a precise time (like 8:35). I was only allowed to use |
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a car or a bike to get there, no public transport. So bike it was. |
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|
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3. The centre had been established in the grounds of a district office, in an |
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outdoors space that had probably been used as a parking lot before. There was |
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a single person queuing by the gate. Obligatory distancing marks were painted |
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on the sidewalk. |
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4. I was assigned an id number and went to the testing facility itself, which |
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was built in a standard metal shipping container. It had two doors, one for |
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the doctor and another one for the patient. Inside, the container was divided |
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in two halves by an acrylic glass. |
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|
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5. The doctor handed me the test (stick with cotton wool in a tube) through a |
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slot in the glass. Then she instructed me (with the help of a chart with nice |
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illustrations) how I must wipe my throat and nose with the stick. When I was |
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done, I returned the test through the slot. |
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|
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6. The doctor told me I was brave. I told her she was very nice. She told me I |
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was very nice too. I wanted to add that if we can't stay nice to each other, |
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then it makes no sense to save humanity, but I didn't find the right words in |
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German. |
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7. To check the results, I went to the web of the test centre (which is just one |
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page under the official site of the city). There, a PDF is published once a |
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day with the results from the previous day, very low-tech, it's just id |
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numbers and positive/negative. Mine was negative. |
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+++ |
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title = "Last man standing" |
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template = "post.html" |
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+++ |
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|
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_a report on how I managed to not find out who won the US elections for 12 days_ |
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<!-- more --> |
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I lost on Sunday, Nov 15 at 19:30. In a game with a lot of participants but no |
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real rivals; just against the environment. The rules were simple: I had to be |
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the last person on Earth to find out who won the US elections. It took me a |
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while to write this report but here you go... |
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|
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I forgot the name of the game or where I first heard of it, but I believe it's |
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traditionally played with the Superbowl results in a group of friends. Any |
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spectacular, unavoidable event will do though. (Why there are few such events in |
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Czech or German culture is another topic.) |
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|
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Last time I played was in 2016. Back then I survived only until noon after the |
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election night but enjoyed the weirdest startup stand-up meeting ever. That's |
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the main thrill of the game -- it messes up your mind so nice. Or shifts the |
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perspective, if you will. |
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|
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This year the conditions were ideal: working from home, not much to do outside. |
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So to make it more interesting, I set to go on with my social life as I would |
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normally do. I was meeting people and didn't try to avoid any conversation |
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themes. But there was plenty of dos and donts: |
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|
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First, avoid all news sites and social media, obviously. Second, hide email |
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subjects from your email program -- a newsletter that spills the secret could |
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arrive any minute. Not messaging with people seemed like too much isolation, so |
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I just continued chatting as usual. |
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|
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Walking outside turned out to be fine too (no news-stands thesedays), same with |
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most of online activity: magazines, blogs, searching, music... Just watch out |
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for "trending topics" sections. In general, I'm grateful to everyone who's not |
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trying to shove politics down your throat 24/7. |
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|
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The first two days were the hardest: I felt as if excluded from a fun |
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party. Also I lost a source of distraction -- I realized I had been checking the |
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news each time I needed a short break from work. But I soon found many |
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replacement activities: |
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|
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Longform articles, exhibition leaflets, notes from 2018, German vocabulary from |
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2017... I was occupied with some quality stuff but also just procrastinated. You |
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see, the point was not to become a more focused and efficient person. This said, |
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I did learn a few things: |
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|
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For instance letting people tell you international news in person is great. At |
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some point a friend explained me everything about the latest development in the |
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covid vaccine research that had apparently been happening. In his own words. |
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Super enjoyable. |
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|
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But the most important moment came when the game was over and I started going |
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through all that I missed. Excellent fresh look on what is relevant. |
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Surprisingly, there was only about 20 articles I ended up reading. Nothing about |
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the election itself. Plus a pile of memes. |
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|
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Funny thing is how the emotional aspect of the news got lost. It's barely |
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possible to see 2 weeks old social media content. And if you do find it, you |
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just don't feel it: I guess the waiting for the results was suspenseful? Being |
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slow really breaks the news cycle engagement game. |
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|
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Two more findings: Content curation is great -- a weekly newsletter compiled by |
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a human is an ideal news format. And then categorization -- the web needs more |
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of it. I wish it was easier to filter only content (news, social media) about |
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let's say art and new music. |
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|
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Anyway... that was the game. I lost quite unspectacularly: A friend mentioned |
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that she had this wish for Trump to lose and that it came true. I was like: Hm. |
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+++ |
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title = "Blog" |
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sorted_by = "date" |
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template = "blog.html" |
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+++ |
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|
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{% extends "section.html" %} |
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{% block section_extra -%} |
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{% for page in section.pages | reverse -%} |
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<article class="h-entry" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"> |
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{% if page.extra.date_created -%} |
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{% set date = page.extra.date_created -%} |
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{% else -%} |
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{% set date = page.date -%} |
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{% endif -%} |
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<h2> |
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<a |
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href="{{ page.permalink | safe }}" |
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itemprop="url" |
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>{{ page.title | safe }}</a> |
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{% if date -%} |
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( |
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{%- if page.extra.ongoing %}since {% endif -%} |
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{{- date | date(format='%Y-%m-%d') -}} |
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) |
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{%- endif %} |
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</h2> |
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<meta itemprop="name" class="p-name" content="{{ page.title }}" /> |
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<div itemprop="creator" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"> |
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<meta |
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class="p-author" |
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itemprop="name" |
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content="{{ config.extra.author }}" |
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/> |
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</div> |
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{% if date -%} |
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<meta |
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class="dt-published" |
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itemprop="dateCreated" |
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content="{{ date | date(format='%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z') }}" |
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/> |
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{%- endif %} |
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<div class="p-summary" itemprop="abstract"> |
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{{ page.summary | safe }} |
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</div> |
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</article> |
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{%- endfor %} |
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{%- endblock section_extra %} |
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{% extends "page.html" %} |
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{% block nav -%} |
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<nav> |
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<ul> |
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<li> |
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<a href="{{ get_url(path='@/_index.md') | safe }}">{{ config.title }}</a> > |
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<a href="{{ get_url(path='@/blog/_index.md') | safe }}">blog</a> |
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</li> |
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</ul> |
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</nav> |
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{%- endblock nav %} |
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{% block main -%} |
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<article class="h-entry" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"> |
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<header> |
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<h1 class="p-name" itemprop="name">{{ page.title }}</h1> |
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</header> |
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<meta |
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class="dt-published" |
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itemprop="dateCreated" |
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content="{{ page.date | date(format='%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z') }}" |
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/> |
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<div class="e-content" itemprop="articleBody"> |
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{{ page.content | safe }} |
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</div> |
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<div itemprop="creator" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"> |
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<p class="p-author" itemprop="name">{{ config.extra.author }}</p> |
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</div> |
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<p>{{ page.date | date(format='%Y-%m-%d') }}</p> |
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</article> |
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{%- endblock content %} |
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{% block footer -%} |
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<nav> |
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<ul> |
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<li><a href="#">scroll to top</a></li> |
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</ul> |
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</nav> |
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{%- endblock footer %} |
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{% extends "base.html" %} |
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{% block nav -%} |
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<nav> |
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<ul> |
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<li><a href="{{ get_url(path='@/_index.md') | safe }}">{{ config.title }}</a></li> |
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</ul> |
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</nav> |
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{%- endblock nav %} |
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{% block content %} |
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<article itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"> |
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<header class="article-header"> |
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<h2>{{ section.title }}</h2> |
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<main class="page"> |
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<header> |
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<h1>{{ section.title }}</h1> |
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</header> |
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<div |
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itemprop="articleBody" |
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class="article-body article-section{% block extra_classes %}{% endblock extra_classes %}" |
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> |
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{{ section.content | safe }} |
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</div> |
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</article> |
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{{ section.content | safe }} |
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{% block section_extra %}{% endblock section_extra %} |
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</main> |
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{% endblock content %} |
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|
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