
The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978) - garrincha
http://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-theory-of-interstellar-trade
======
careersuicide
Any discussion of interstellar trade deserves a mention of the fantastic
Charles Stross book "Neptune's Brood". I went into it expecting more or less a
sequel to "Saturn's Children" but what I got was a treatise on monetary policy
for economies that span multiple star systems. The concept of slow and fast
money and its implications is utterly fascinating and the book is worth
reading just for its explorations of the topic (the plot isn't too bad
either).

A quick Google search brought me to this post by Krugman[0]:

    
    
      I’m reading an advance copy of Charlie Stross’s Neptune’s Brood. (Hey, I have connections!)
      And it is the best thing by far written on the subject to date, partly because it is, as far
      as I know, the only thing written on the subject to date.
    

0: [http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/the-theory-of-
in...](http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/the-theory-of-interstellar-
finance/)

~~~
uncletaco
I loved that book. For the curious, the way interstellar trade works is
through a simplified bitcoin network transmitted over light beams (because the
only assets worth trading are digital). The biggest difference is each node in
the network is actually a planet and a transaction between planet A and B is
only confirmed when planet C validates the transaction. Planet C is usually
decided on a nearest neighbor basis (If I recall correctly).

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nabla9
Krugman is huge scifi nerd. He chose to study economics because it was the
closest thing to psycohistory in real life.

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/01/the-
deflationis...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/01/the-deflationist)

------
Johnny555
I'd be interested to know what possible commodity would be worth trading among
star systems -- even if some star system has a planet made entirely of
diamonds, surely it would take far less energy to made them here than to ship
them between stars? Likewise, it seems that endless amounts of gold (platinum,
rhodium, whatever) could be harvested from our own solar system before it's
worth shipping here.

Even if there's some alien truffle delicacy that only grows in the shade of a
tree bathed in UV light from an alien star, surely that could be cultivated
here in an artificial habitat far easier than shipping it light years across
the galaxy?

~~~
TaylorAlexander
Information.

Personally I imagine we're better off when we share information for free, but
I haven't tested the hypothesis.

~~~
dghughes
Aww dang it, I didn't see you wrote information first.

And here I am thinking I was being insightful.

------
avian
Link to the original PDF that does not endlessly nag you to subscribe to the
newsletter:

[https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf](https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf)

------
bladedtoys
Fun article but, has figure II been lost to history?

If so then an better scanned version of the pdf should be the first thing we
buy from a distant civilization.

~~~
Khoth
"Readers who find figure II puzzling should recall that a diagram of an
imaginary axis must, of course, itself be imaginary"

------
ra1n85
"By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy
has been no greater than the fax machine's."

-Paul Krugman

Paul does not have the best track record.

~~~
nabla9
exact quote:

>"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's
law'–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is
proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent:
most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become
clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the
fax machine's."

Krugmans response to criticism:

> First, look at the whole piece. It was a thing for the Times magazine's
> 100th anniversary, written as if by someone looking back from 2098, so the
> point was to be fun and provocative, not to engage in careful forecasting; I
> mean, there are lines in there about St. Petersburg having more skyscrapers
> than New York, which was not a prediction, just a thought-provoker.

>But the main point is that I don't claim any special expertise in technology
-- I almost never make technological forecasts, and the only reason there was
stuff like that in the 98 piece was because the assignment required that I do
that sort of thing.

~~~
tvanantwerp
He was partly right that most people have nothing to say to each other. But
that doesn't seem to stop them from talking anyway.

------
djschnei
On a related note; this is one of my favorite podcasts

[http://contrakrugman.com/](http://contrakrugman.com/)

Also related; Krugman is probably my least favorite modern day "economist".

------
chrishacken
I understand that this paper is sort of a joke (hence references to "the
force"), but I don't understand the point of some of these research papers.

> "How should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods
> travel at close to the speed of light?"

Perhaps we should do more research on getting the goods to travel close to the
speed of light before we start worrying about how to calculate interest
charges on them.

~~~
xenophon
According to Krugman, the paper is "a serious analysis of a ridiculous
subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics."

I think this paper is a great example of the playfulness inherent to an
effective "hacker" mindset -- do something fun and interesting, and perhaps
useful conclusions will follow. Perhaps they won't, but hey, you still had
fun.

~~~
mamon
>> According to Krugman, the paper is "a serious analysis of a ridiculous
subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics."

So, if I understand correctly (as non-native English speaker), the usual in
economics is: "ridiculous analysis of serious subject" ??

~~~
dsjoerg
Yes that is the implication exactly.

