It seems to me we could switch from an economy of physical abundance (which is meeting hard resource limits) to an economy of virtual abundance, a changeover equivalent in scale to the transition from broadcast television to cable television, or from wired telephony to cellular.

Consider every artifact a spime, capable of communicating its location, and every human a sensor, all communicating thru a worldwide twitter-like substrate. This could well be a recipe for totalitarianism, where we end up destroying human civilization mostly to protect incumbent business models. The possible flip side: a world of sharing resource-limited artifacts while enjoying virtual abundance. While such a vision precludes the authenticity of actual experience in the natural world, there seems at least one huge advantage: it’s scalable to everyone who can afford a computer and broadband access.

And, Dave, you do yourself a disservice by saying you don’t have anything to offer Dark Mountain – I’ve read your prose, and it’s some of the most honest writing I’ve ever come across.