
The Attention Economy and the Net (1997) - jpelecanos
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/519/440
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sekou
A surprising amount of phenomena in today's world can be explained around this
theory. Every prediction in the "Further Expectations" section has in a way
come to pass. As far as his prediction that money becomes "less important"
it's possible that within a century VR will recreate a number of the
experiences you would need material wealth to obtain today. A trend has
already begun with younger generations giving preference to virtual
experiences. It's still hard to tell if that's a world I'd want to live in.

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rtb
Previous thread from the time of posting:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=119295](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=119295)

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o_nate
This article is good on the future, not so good on the past. The
characterization of the transition from feudalism to a market economy as being
led by North America seems highly suspect. It seems to me that the New World
colonies that came from countries with thriving market economies (such as
Britain) developed thriving market economies. The colonies from countries with
more feudalistic economies (e.g. Spain) developed more feudalistic economies.

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appearsonline
The British (by coming later) learned from the mistakes of the Spanish (who
came first).

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o_nate
I think it was more just a matter of replicating their home country economic
model in the New World, and being part of developments towards a market
economy that were happening around the world, predominantly in the British
sphere of influence.

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soneca
I learned that the abundance of gold and silver in Latin America prevented any
kind of market-based economy evolving around here as colonies. Just slave
everyone and make people extract the value from earth. Then came other natural
resources with similar approach as sugar cane and coffee.

North America had none of it, so the only way it could provide value to the
empire was through commerce and a market-based economy.

