Post #10786
May 18, 2014, 11:34:29 PM
I'm skeptical.
With the advance of technology over the ages, industries have had to evolve, revolutionize, and adapt to the times continuously...the Internet is no different. Some industries become outdated and are swept under, and new ones take shape, but it's never produced the end of capitalism, because one fundamental thing doesn't change...people have needs that they can't take care of themselves. Items like solar panels and wind turbines need to be manufactured, something I don't think anyone can do efficiently small-scale. The Internet itself doesn't maintain itself, and particularly in the US ISPs are lobbying hard to gain a foothold over controlling the internet for their own needs. And the idea of Americans or most developed societies actually wanting to farm notwithstanding, home farms or even communal farms can't compete with the efficiency of large company farms, which is why most developed countries are no longer agrarian.
Blizzard has made untold billions on World of Warcraft probably, while Second Life, an online world where prosumers should be able to thrive, has barely made a dent. Why is that?
The article states that the internet of things will lead either to the monopolisation of everything or the democratisation of everything, and I think we're already seeing the former. This isn't the first I've heard of the idea behind the Internet of Things, and everyone and every company wants to get their foot in the door do they have the advantage in the space. I recently read an article about Microsoft making a push toward cloud services for that reason, a very specific space that Google, Amazon, and IBM are already in. I see neither them or capitalism being dethroned anytime in the near future.