The Internet saved the 90's. What is the 21st century Internet?

[sixmile]

The Sun, perhaps?

The Internet created the jobs, tax base and opportunities that many believe were created by Washington, but were not.

We need a new Internet.

I suggest solarizing the whole planet - finally!

[RagAss]

1. Government Cheese.

[sixmile]

5. That would keep cardiologists and laxative makers busy

and dairy owners

[wysimdnwyg]

16. This?

http://youtu.be/FzHb9prke5w

http://youtu.be/I2R6idE6n-M

[Fuddnik]

19. Trojan vibrators.

I saw the commercial the other night. Everyone seemed happy.

[slackmaster]

2. SkyNet

:scared:

[FSogol]

3. Using 3D printers to print replacement body parts using stem cells.

Of course.

[HughBeaumont]

4. Aahhhhh. You know that when we get a new "Internet" or some silver bullet, it'll be sent to China.

Sadly, I'm not seeing very many "killer apps" or silver bullets and Joe Nosepicker isn't going to be able to invent his way out of this mess.

The long-term insight of Corporate America amazes me. It really does.

[NightWatcher]

6. Sporks! Or that whole reengineer our infrastructure with solar and renewables

But I'm still holding out for Sporks. Imagine if everyone were to replace all their forks and all their knives with a Spork. Imagine the money to be made as the sole Spork supplier.

[cap]

7. There is a lot of stuff going on.

Alternative energy is a big driver. There are at least 10different hybrids of sort with the electric car on the way.

There's a lot coming out of neuroscience: neuroscience based control systems, cognitive training for disabled elderly, and "worried well", cognitive enhancement, brain computer interfaces (http://journeythroughthecortex.blogspot.com/2011/08/brain-cap-technology-turns-thought-into.html. I'm serious. This stuff is not science fiction). Neurologically informed education-- personalize education according to neurology. A lot of mind body integration in medicine --- some science based and some just woo-- but definitely a movement in medicine. I think neuro is the next "e" or "I". Just slap neuro in front of come thing and it's there. Neuromarketing, neurocomputation, neurophilosophy, neuroscience of religion, neuro leadership -- leadership using cognition, etc

A lot of biotech and ecology. Return to nature movement. Huge.

Nanotechnology is going strong.

Also, each of these fields are going to influence each other. Huge interdisciplinary movements. Think NBIC convergence.


Growth of caring economics.

Despite the gloom on the national scene and current economy, there's a lot to be hopeful. Look to the grassroots.

[cap]

8. 3d printers going mass market

They are trying to get the price down to $1000. Per printer. Would radically change our dependence on china. We would be able to create our own cheap plastic crap. Download a pattern from the internet, pour in goop, and we would have our own toys.

Right now the 3d printers are going for about $5000. Need to get the price own.

[FSogol]

17. Want one for free (almost)? Check this out, people build them at home and print out

the parts for new 3d printers.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

[Javaman]

9. part time fast food jobs. nt

[GliderGuider]

10. Wood stoves nt

[Odin2005]

11. Nanotechnology.

[mmonk]

12. We need to get away from bubble economics altogether.

We need economic stability and steady market rise instead of up and then crash.

[GliderGuider]

13. That would require getting away from economics altogether. Which is not only a good idea

but in the long run is inevitable.

Personally I'm in favour of returning to gift economies.

[mmonk]

15. Nice sentiment but aren't you confusing economics with marketology?

Sound economies are stable and bubble economies are not and that was my point. Economics is something one cannot get away from if there is any sort of exchange of goods and services.

[GliderGuider]

18. The abstraction of value is the culprit.

Every economy that is based on the abstraction of value from the underlying product or service into money (thereby imputing the value to the money rather than the original object of value) is vulnerable to bubbles, AFAICT. Can you see a way to structure such an economy that would prevent even the possibility of bubbles? It may be a failure of imagination on my part, but I can't.

The only sorts of economies that intrinsically avoid the possibility of bubbles are those that do not abstract value into money, but leave it with the original good or service. That means that only barter or gift economies are immune.

[mmonk]

20. The economy in the 60s and 70s was different.

People investing looked for long term growth and soundness, not a hot home run, and the economy and markets were more regulated and steady and not geared to get rich quick.

[GliderGuider]

21. That's true. So what we we need to do to get back to that is...

Undo thirty years of right-wing corporatist socioeconomic takeover. We'd still be vulnerable to bubbles, but they wouldn't be as likely.

Personally, I don't think we can get back there. It would take a combination of economic collapse and revolution to break the cultural and economic chokehold the plutocrats got us in since the publication of the Powell Memo in 1971. Now, we may get that collapse and revolution, but that wouldn't put us back in the 1960's, it would reset us much closer to zero than that.

I'm extremely pessimistic about the next 100 years. It's not just the economy that's in trouble. It's the ecological devastation, the death of the oceans, climate change that threatens global food production, the drawdown of most non-renewable resources (especially oil) and the increasing social instability around the globe. The social instability goes hand in glove with growing populations, shrinking resources and the increasing inequity fostered by the global market system. The economy just provides the most immediate picture of the underlying clusterfuck.

We can't fix the predicament we're in by tackling the problems as though they are independent. We can reregulate finances and trading, and that would make a good difference, but in the longer term the economy is going south no matter what we do.

IMHO.

[mmonk]

22. The sentiments you originally expressed I agree with BTW.

I'm currently looking at alternatives we can do as communities from the ground up that can give us happiness and sustainability no matter what Washington does.

[GliderGuider]

23. Yes! Communities are the place to look.

The closer we pull in our horizons, the more difference we can make.
We're all "big frogs" if we define the pond to be small enough...:toast:

[GliderGuider]

24. Wrong place

[DLnyc]

26. That is true, investing was a different animal then.

Perhaps practical things like:

Small (.01%) transfer tax on stock transactions, to punish speculators and reward investors.

Progressive tax on corporations, to punish (excessive) size and nurture small, competitive companies.

Actual anti-trust action to break up monopolies.

Publicly funded elections to greatly decrease the money needed to run a campaign, and thus greatly decrease the influence of money on politics (so large companies have rely on intrinsic value, rather than buying politicians and getting rich by manipulating regulations. For similar reason, require media to carry five minutes of free political advertising during campaigns (as is done in Israel, for example).

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. This. n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

14. Infrastructure Banks.

[GliderGuider]

25. The 21st century Internet will be relocalization

Anything we do to improve the viability of small communities will have enormous value.

Thanks for the inspiration mmonk! :thumbsup:

[loyalsister]

28. Transportation

tourism, and physical expansion of some internet businesses.

[Yavin4]

29. Kudzu ! It's going places.

Old school DU in the house!!!

[Armstead]

34. Purple Loosetrife too

[TwilightGardener]

42. LOL!

[tridim]

30. Nanotech, stem cell therapy, quantum computing, and maybe fusion.

I believe nanotech will prove to be richer than the Internet in the next 10 years.

The promise of quantum computing (if it works) is way beyond our wildest dreams.

[ParkieDem]

31. In some parts of the country ....

It's natural gas. Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, upstate New York, North Dakota, Arkansas, Louisiana are all experiencing some sort of boom activity in natural gas drilling. Some regional economies are really doing well due to this phenomenon.

[tridim]

33. You may want to do some research on the term "fracking".

[ParkieDem]

40. Fracking?

Trust me, I know what fracking is.

[Armstead]

32. Rebuilding America's infrastructure would be a start

Repair and/or upgrade crumbling roads, bridges,sewer and water systems, etc. aren't sexy -- but both necessary and job producers and stimulants for many businesses.

[tridim]

35. That's Obama's plan.

Contrary to popular belief, we have a progressive President in the true sense of the word.

[Armstead]

36. If he stands by it and fights for it, I'll certainly support him on that

[dawg]

41. Me too.

This would be great, were it to actually happen.

Sadly, the best chance for an infrastructure push was in the stimulus. But the President felt the need to compromise, so he proposed a stimulus 60% of the size actually needed to reboot the economy, and then made sure that a sizable chunk of that consisted of tax cuts.

[dawg]

39. Where's the money coming from?

I've heard lots of talk about infrastructure, but precious little action.

[tridim]

43. A Federal Infrastructure Bank

It's really a beautiful plan, even though it has been mostly ignored on DU where hate trumps hope.

He explained the basics of the plan in his speech the other day.

[grahamhgreen]

37. Wind is cheaper or as cheap as nuclear and coal

[aikoaiko]

38. legalizing weed.

[tridim]

47. And legalizing hemp would change everything

I don't think most people understand what an amazing crop it is. It solves problems.

[Strelnikov_]

44. Soylent Green n/t

[Strelnikov_]

45. Quietus

Older/infirm citizens have become a burden; nursing homes are for the privileged few. The rest are expected and sometimes forced to commit suicide by taking part in a "Quietus"

[RT Atlanta]

46. Sustainable transportation

and re-envisioning how our communities are shaped - re-incorporating (at a level equal to cars, etc.) safe pedestrian walkways and bicyling. Greenways and trails for interconnectivity separate and distinct from roads (and the fossil fuels required to ride on them).

This level of incorporation has been shown time and again to increase the overall vitality of a community, including the economic vitality.

[MilesColtrane]

48. Private Protection Services for the richest 1%

They're going to need their own armies and security teams for property surveillance. Plus there'll be construction jobs; moat building and other fortifications.

[Spider Jerusalem]

49. The Internet created a massive economic bubble that burst within less than a decade

Things seemed pretty good in the boom years, sure, but it wasn't sustainable and there was a lot of overinvestment and too crowded a field in the tech sector, the collapse of the bubble and subsequent retrenchment were really inevitable. The '90's and the dot-com and tech boom was the latter-day equivalent of the 1920's economic bubble (also fuelled by the rise of new technologies, only back then it was aeroplanes, automobiles, radio and cinema). The last thing you want is a 21st century equivalent of either of those; a long-term sustainable economy is a far better goal (unfortunately a long-term sustainable economy is one in which economic growth is negligible to zero, because we happen to be on a finite planet with a limited resource base).