Bernard Lietaer - The Future of Money - Full Book

automatically to crowd out competitors until it captures 100% of the market. Microsoft's dominance in the PC software market is often cited as an example of this process in action. Are we inaugurating an era where de facto monopolies can emerge more easily than in the traditional Industrial economies' Have anti-trust laws designed for the Industrial Age become ineffective in cyberspace? Or are these compensation hare-ups and new types of monopolies just a last gasp of the transition from the Industrial Age? This is something like what happened to skilled weavers at the beginning of the industrialisation process: their incomes soared after spinning was mechanised, only to crash when new machines replaced their own skills later on. This is what MIT economist Paul Krugman claims is going to happen. Take the case of high-priced actors: Mirage Entertainment Sciences describes itself as the first 'Posthuman Talent Agency'. Its first 'synthetic image actor', a blonde and buxom beauty named Justine and produced on a CAD called Life F/x., is already available. 'We are even able to wrinkle the skin so it behaves like real tissue,' says Ivan Gulas the Harvard clinical psychologist who is shaping the new actress for Hollywood's purposes. Today's actors may suddenly find themselves competing with Marilyn Monroe or Humphrey Bogart, or even a new 'ideal' synthesis of several of the best actors of all times.

Similar early inroads being made in other high-paying jobs: robots that perform hip-replacement surgery; and expert systems that plan your will or prepare and file your tax returns. The first successful adaptive neuronet applications that replace currency or bond traders are being implemented because 'humans cannot keep up with the high speed of these information-dependent systems'.

In short, nobody should believe that he will remain forever immune to Information Age obsolescence. Everyone should be interested in a society that is viable for everybody. After all, we are only making the opening moves in the new global Information Age chess game, and nobody really knows how the game will unfold.