.21st June 2008
We have a double video session this week.
1. "The Rise of the Amateur Professional", a talk by Charles Leadbeater at TED talks seminars.
2. "A way to God - Peace" by Anthony de Mello
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Discussion:
Alvin Toffler wrote about on the rise of the prosumer (= producer + consumer) in his book "The Third Wave" and "Revolutionary Wealth"; and it appears that we are moving towards the direction of Bucky's dream of a World Game such that nobody will work for money because what they need are already paid for.
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Vasu said that it will be wonderful the day if public transport are free. At the moment in Singapore, public buses are privatised and profit making. "But, it won't ever be free isn't it? Someone somewhere else will be paying for it", someone interjected.
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This is a common notion in the current world economy and world accounting system. In Bucky's World Game, he mentioned about how life supporting wealth can be distributed and how a global electricity grid can be constructed to facilitate this transfer of wealth. In Bucky's mind, we are living in an eternally regenerative universe where nothing is created and nothing is destroyed, so there is abundance and enough for all. Besides, with technology, we are progressively getting more strength per pound of metal from newly discovered alloys. Such discoveries and efficiencies ought to result in lower prices to consumers. However this do not happen because the salaries of managers in large corporations benefit from a rise in prices of goods that they manufacture. For further commentary on World Game, read
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For a quick introduction to Toffler's book, "Revolutionary Wealth", you may like to read
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Back to our discussion in the salon...
"But how will the government fund a 'free transport'? It will have to come from taxes. I will hate to pay the kind of taxes like in Sweden (up to 60%), " someone retorted.
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Perhaps it is difficult for most of us to conceive a world that Bucky could see in his mind's eye. A world that Lenon sang, where there will be no country, nothing to kill or die for, no possessions and no religion too, living all in peace... Do we dare to be this dreamer?
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But this is no longer all dream stuff. As Charles Leadbeater has pointed out, there are many prosumer (unpaid worker) groups sprouting up and serving communities. These communities grew as a result of collective passion. Examples are getting more common place, eg. Volunteer paramedics, Open Source programmers, bloggers, self-help groups (not confined to charity, but also IT/technical interest groups), free online seminars (like TED talks), free online health care information,...etc.
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This includes this blog, where I have started with merely a 'good feeling', but have now made new friends, many whom have thanked me for putting those notes from the seminars I have attended, such as "A Course In Miracles" and "105 Universal Laws".
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There are also less obvious free labour that we provide to big corporations, many of which we are no longer conscious of, eg. withdrawing money from the ATM, buying DIY products, and online booking of air tickets, concert tickets, hotels, holidays and purchase of books.
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"But some of these still doesn't work," someone commented, "I have friends who are into Open Source and are yet to make money".
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I think there will be a transition period before we move into the ideal state as espoused by Bucky's World Game, since prosuming works only under the following conditions:
- Low cost and easy availability of technology
- Pervasive access to the Internet and mobile telephony
- A highly educated and community spirited populous
- Political freedom and expression
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Questions: Where do you think your community or country stand with respect to the above conditions? How far has your society progressed towards being a prosumer society?
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Some countries are some way yet towards those conditions for prosumers to grow. That is why certain prosuming activities have not entered mainstream. However, what is evident now is that we are certainly moving towards that direction. It may be interesting to see how all these prosuming activities will synergise with social enterprises, where business objectives must be to serve communities first and not to profit first (though profits are allowed and are not restrained).
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