Discussions on the Future of the Economy
Introduction
This is a series of teleconference sessions on the future of our economy. In this informal mini-conference, we will be discussing key ideas on how to transform our economic infrastructure for the sustainable future. Due to the strong coupling between a proper treatment of this topic with necessary insight into current and future technological trends, this area has been poorly explored by mainstream economists, and will blossom with interdisciplinary perspectives.
Location and Time
(in progress)
It is organized as a series of sessions during the first week of August (night or morning to accommodate timezones in Thailand, East Coast USA, Korea, West Coast USA - ordered from least to most flexible according to count). Location is Google+ hangout. There are many interested people suggesting to keep the discussion going on a continuing basis, in the format of a 2 hour weekly session - we can announce that after the first meeting is successful.
People
(we’ve hit the limit on the number of people in G+ hangout - multiple sessions required if we want to accommodate more people who've expressed interest):
- Mr Michel Bauwens, Founder of the P2P Foundation
- Dr Marvin T. Brown, Professor, author of "Civilizing the Economy"
- Dr Adam Arvidsson, Professor, author of "Ethical Economy"
- Dr Christian Arnsperger, Professor, author of "Full-Spectrum Economics", creator of the "Eco-transitions" blog (www.eco-transitions.blogspot.com)
- Dr James Hughes, Executive Director for Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies
- Dr Mark D. Whitaker, Socio-economist.
- Dr Meera Sitharam, Professor, Complexity expert
- Dr Linda Hermer, Neuroscientist, studying Healthcare Policy
- Dr Amit Dhurandhar, Machine Learning researcher at IBM
- Mohamad Tarifi, PhD candidate in Computer Science
Topics
Please feel free to add new sessions, topics, modify existing ones, or otherwise change anything you want. I will act as moderator, but I think it’s better if you lead specific topics. Please write your name next to the topic(s) you wish to lead:
- Session 1: Technology and the Economics of abundance and scarcity.
- Automation and work (Lead by: Mohamad Tarifi)
- Environmental impact
- Session 2: The relationship between the Individual and the Society
- Top-down, Bottom-up, P2P organization
- Philosophical, Environmental, Ethical considerations
- Session 3: Currency exchange systems
- Scarcity based systems: traditional, bitcoin, the terra
- Abundance based systems: ripplepay, community hours
- Public commons
- Session 4: Transition challenges ahead
- Political, Social and Economic barriers
- From possible to probable solutions
- Session 5: Open discussion - this may evolve into an ongoing weekly or biweekly meeting.
Pre-Reading list
List of short introductory material: