garydenton

Comment Threads

• bellinghman commented on Moonshine
  Oh course, there's a non-zero, and higher, chance that what condenses out is something that appears to be your ten-years-advanced copy, but isn't. Quite. And which saw England win in 2014. Or France. Or Germany. Or Italy. Or ......
• Charlie Stross commented on Moonshine
  Its not the raw materials that a space economy would trade with earth. Its the advanced technology that can only be created in zero gravity that will be the commodity. Got any examples of that "advanced technology that can only be created in zero gravity" for me?...
• scentofviolets commented on Moonshine
  @254: Consider that our economics is entirely dependent upon growth, and no one has invented an economics that works in the flat part of the logistic curve. Such an economics is possible, but I doubt people would like it. Actually, the flat part of the curve was the norm for many thousands of years. Feudalism is one such example of an economic setup that was essentially zero sum. The scary part is, I'm not entirely certain that zero-sum economics doesn't force some sort of Feudalism or its equivalent on the masses. The guys at the top didn't get there by...
• Charlie Stross commented on Moonshine
  Ahem: Feudalism was not an economic system -- it was a political/military solution to managing a society with limited resources in a state of what we, today, would call constant warfare. Various economic systems emerged in feudal and post-feudal societies, including subsystems like the huge church holdings in England (ever wonder what Henry VIII got from compulsorily nationalizing the monasteries, besides a quickie divorce?), or the guild systems, and so on. But feudalism itself was about a hierarchical system of obligations and service that was there to hold together a state where the smallest functional unit was a small village...
• scentofviolets commented on Moonshine
  @265: You're of course correct, but as I was typing it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't really know the name of economic system typically associated with Feudalism even if I could describe it in a paragraph or three. So I just went sloppy and added "some sort" and "or it's equivalent". The one thing I would add to your "hierarchical system of obligations and service" was that it was also, above all, hereditary. Them that had were disinclined to share with them that didn't, as doing so would only make them comparatively worse off. One of the hazards...