Not simplistic, Zenbu staff actually do that now: <
With Cyberspace income, people can live anywhere and click to order food delivered by courier and get everything else done too.
Over simplification... without the economies of scale that is not possible.. >
The food is delivered to a remote rural area [Rangataua - check it out zenbu.co.nz you can use Street View and zoom with satellite view] The food is organic, delivered by Fastway Courier fastway.co.nz at a cheaper price than the cost of driving to a supermarket which charges more for lower quality food.
With couriers, they do door to door which is highly efficient. They have economies of scale which individuals don't have driving all the way, individually, to big car parks surrounding supermarkets.
The economies of scale shifted from increasing advantage for big, centralized, sales points to the periphery of Cyberspace. It was hard work to get a purchase order to a supplier before Cyberspace. Now it's click and pay on-line. Hey presto, supplies arrive at the door hours later, even in rural areas.
Some things remain more efficiently done in giant central places such as electricity generation in thermal stations. But line losses and the like make it not a slam dunk. Plus there is security of supply, best achieved locally so one bomb or blunder can't shut down all users. So while it's still mostly cheaper to get electricity from big power stations, things like insulation, photovoltaics, and increased efficiency in lighting [LEDs for example] make the price of electricity not a big thing in a Geek's life.
Here I am, sitting anywhere in the world, hooked up to Cyberspace. In my Big Oil days, we wrote on pieces of paper, which were collected by a mail lady and carted around a big building to be transcribed using typewriters, and physically loaded onto trucks to deliver to the hinterlands of the world. I was pushing electronics from 1979 for moving BP's information mountains. But until the technology existed, centralization, big train stations, giant airports, big paper mills, 44 gallon drums of ink, and all the effort required had to be centralized.
Crops are grown in amazing quality and quantity. <unless you plan on eating pixelated beef and carrots... transport and production remain critical > Genetically selected and engineered corn is grown by the square mile. No longer do donkeys and draught horses plough the fields with hand harvesting by hordes of poor people. A few pieces of equipment can feed millions of people at low cost. Corn used to have an enzyme which turned sugars to starches within hours of picking. Now, corn is good for a few days. The cobs are huge and succulent. Grapes can be delivered from South America and sold to me in Auckland for only $4 per kilogram. It baffles me how they do it but they do.
A380s can carry half a thousand people in safety, comfort and at low cost around the planet in 24 hours. Geeks can now be migratory species, following the sun. Northern hemisphere from May to September, southern from October to April. I'm doing it. So are increasing swarms of people.
When my ancestors fled warring, hungry Europe, it took months rather than hours to get there, and many children and others would die en route, with burials at sea. When they got there, they did not just log on and carry on. It was a life of penury and effort.
You should get out more. It's not over simplified. It's real.
Look at TJ, swanning around Europe, clicking in Cyberspace, downloading cash as required. Same here. It's reality for increasing swarms of people. Hey, speak of the Devil. See next post from TJ, lurking there in France, cerfing through Cyberspace, keeping tabs on doings everywhere. Recommendation... choose camembert, fondle figs, buy baguettes, nosh on nectarines, pick peaches, tempt with tapenade.
Mqurice |
