<nettime> venture verite [re: cyber-communism]

["a.s.ambulanzen" <a.s.ambulanzen@rolux.org>]

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        Venture Verité




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        What if the Dow doesn't fall to 3,000, but zooms to 30,000 in
        four years?


        If you're Jack Jones and want to be jackjones.homepage.com,
        you'll have to bid against every other Jack Jones in pursuit of
        the same online identity. The page is free, subsidized by banner
        ads, but you'll be able to place additional merchant links of
        your own choice, from a selection stored online. Then you'll
        keep a cut of the clickthrough revenue. In effect, you'll become
        a junior Web capitalist.


        The way capitalism works is that the people who understand how
        to invest get the money to invest.


        Walter Wriston, former CEO of Citibank, likes to quip that in
        the new economy, "money goes where it is wanted and stays where
        it is well treated."


        I worry that so many people don't have any comprehension of how
        to create wealth by serving others. They have been taught by
        Marx and 50 years of kleptocracy that you get money by taking
        money from others, rather than by serving others, which is what
        capitalism is all about.


        I've reached statutory senility, so I am retired, but I go to
        work every day. In fact, I work for seven different companies.


        I think three intelligent people could raise a million right now
        for just about anything.


        The gap between rich and poor is not widening. This is a claim
        that is usually based on myths.




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        Yes, we see the stock market, the Dow, going to 35,000 or 40,000
        in the next decade.


        The US economy becomes a tornado, whipping up huge gains on
        investments. That great sucking sound you hear is all the
        world's money rushing into the most booming economy. In the
        vortex, money is well treated, multiplying fast, sucking in yet
        more money. That leaves a huge arid vacancy in other parts of
        the world for capital.


        Indeed, the Asian crisis can be seen as the result of political
        and financial institutions that did not keep pace with global
        capitalism. Consequently, capital got sucked out of Asia as soon
        as everyone realized how much serious work lay ahead there. This
        is a normal if unfortunate part of economic development.


        One of the great lessons is that the secret to growth is cutting
        jobs. Right. To save the economy, cut jobs.


        Beyond Internet startups, Gross's dream is to privatize an
        entire country, breaking it into worker tribes of no more than
        100 people, all of them energized by the profit motive.


        As Matthew Miller, a senior fellow at the Annenberg Public
        Policy Center, says, "This means guns and butter: ballistic
        missile defense, universal health coverage, hefty tax cuts, and
        a Marshall Plan for Kosovo."


        Several tornados of capital are likely to spin around the globe
        at once.




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        Economist Kevin Hassett and financial columnist James Glassmann,
        coauthors of the upcoming book "Dow 36,000", suggest that we'll
        reach that mark not only in 10 years, but in a few years.


        Speed. That's what Amtrak offers this fall with its new Acela
        service, which will whisk passengers from Boston to the Big
        Apple in just three hours, and on to the nation's capital in two
        and a half more.


        You're shopping online, and it's a breeze - until you order.
        Security measures slow you down, so after a couple of desk-edge
        drum solos, you bail. Too bad the site doesn't have IPivot's
        Commerce Director. It's the ideal appliance for high-volume
        sites that want the money their customers try to give them.


        There's no doubt that the StarTAC ClipOn Organizer is a great
        tool: It is, after all, a PDA and 800-MHz phone in one. And with
        512K of RAM, the organizer holds plenty of contacts, memos, and
        to-dos.


        Nokia's concepts for third-generation mobile phones combine
        voice, data, and images on devices that weigh about half a
        pound. The goal is to put the Web in your pocket.


        Better looking than TV? That's the promise Sega is making with
        its football game for the new Dreamcast console - the company is
        investing millions to ensure that NFL 2000 will be the
        greatest-looking and-playing video football title of all time.


        When words fail, send a picture. Kenwood's KVT-10 Digital Radio
        Camera adds a CCD camera to any Kenwood transceiver, so you can
        send 510- by 472-pixel color pictures as well as voice. Police
        as firefighters may soon start using these things to help solve
        crimes and save lives, but the cameras are also fun to play
        with.




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        Harry Dent, author of "The Roaring 2000s", plots a long curve
        described by the upper and lower limits of the daily
        fluctuations of the Dow and extrapolates this "channel" into the
        future. He expects the Dow to peak at 41,000 in 2008.


        The roaming, spontaneous gatherings of kids in the streets of
        Helsinki are not just a glimpse of our wireless future, but a
        resurgence of our collective past: The rediscovery of an ancient
        unity coded in our senses ... We are herd animals


        Could luxury fever be merely a function of our impulse to
        attract a mate?


        All the world's a stage, and the iColor Cove accent light makes
        you lightning director. Its 45 variable-intensity RGB LEDs can
        create millions of colors to set the scene for relaxation, home
        entertaining, and, yes, romance.


        "It's true", he agrees, "there are some who have not been
        exposed to the rewards of being an entrepreneur and don't know
        what they're missing. But they're starting to hear about it, and
        they're getting antsy for a taste of it. It's as if they're
        sitting on the other side of a one-way mirror, watching people
        make love and wanting to be part of it."


        Walsh, who is also working on CIO tasks like Y2K compliance, is
        so enthusiastic about eLogistics.net that he is devoting nearly
        50 percent of his time to it.


        But we kept having ideas about how customers would manage
        information about shipping and logistics in a perfect world. I'd
        have an idea in the middle of the night, and we'd phone each
        other - which really pissed our wives off.




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        The Dow Hits 50,000


        Equipped with a suspended synchronous motor, a solid-body MDF
        plinth, and the renowned and respected Sumiko Oyster Cartridge,
        this belt-driven table delivers clean, dynamic sound in a
        package that's simple, elegant, and easy to assemble.


        An inexpensive entrée to home security, the HST404 package
        includes remote-control units, door and window sensors, lamp and
        appliance controllers, a siren, a motion detector, and a central
        controller.


        The belt-driven Planar 3 is the perfect combination of utility
        and style. Solid as a tank, this table sports an AC synchronous
        motor, a precision-milled belt, and a medium-density fiberboard
        (MDF) plinth.


        For just 7 grand, a typical 3,000 square-foot home in
        Washington, DC, can be outfitted with magnetic sensors, outside
        motion detectors, sirens, lights, control panels, keychain panic
        buttons, cellular backup, and smoke, fire, and carbon-monoxide
        alarms.


        The Sondek LP-12 - a touchstone for analog music lovers -
        features a belt-driven platter, a suspended subchassis, and a
        tonearm anchored to the base, or plinth, for stability.


        But customized high-end packages, like those offered by Knight
        Security, go above and beyond the call of duty, with biometric
        stations (iris, voice, thumbprint scanning), pressure mats,
        driveway and seismic sensors, night-vision cameras, window
        screens that scream when cut, and "safe rooms" for waiting out a
        home invasion.




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        Charles Kadlec, author of the forthcoming book "Dow 100,000:
        Fact or Fiction", bases his forecast on an annual appreciation
        rate of 11.1 percent.


        As Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future says, "The BMW of
        the next decade will be the personal charitable trust fund."


        But like Kirsch, the new breed of high tech philanthropists want
        to reinvent the art of generosity. They share his sense that
        simply giving money away is too passive and uninvolved. They
        want to lend business expertise, identify and support "social
        entrepreneurs" hungry to shake up the nonprofit world, and
        quantify their results.


        "We're kind of the lunatic fringe of venture philanthropy,
        taking financial metrics and applying them to the social
        sector," says Jed Emerson, the Roberts fund's executive
        director.


        He gives to the University of Arizona's Spacewatch Project,
        which seeks to identify asteroids that could strike the earth.
        "It's cheap collision insurance," Kirsch cracks. "I pay more for
        my Acara NSX."


        PeopleSoft founder David Duffield, meanwhile, has started a $200
        million foundation to prevent the killing of unwanted pets. The
        endowment is so immense that homeless Bay Area dogs and cats can
        find themselves impounded in their own Victorian
        mini-apartments.


        The new breed of Silicon valley philanthropists would make
        Mother Teresa crunch the numbers.




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        We did an extrapolation that said the Dow ought to be 250,000 to
        400,000 at the middle of the next century.


        We're the products of nearly a half-century of scientific
        truthfulness, media skepticism, and postmodern relativism. In
        other words, we've grown allergic to the actual idea of
        improvement.


        What the rich have in the year 2000, the rest have in 2020:
        personal chefs, stay-at-home moms, six-month sabbaticals.


        The good news is, you'll be a millionaire soon. The bad news is,
        so will be everybody else.


        The biggest difference between generations is that the American
        Dream used to be about working hard and building up one's
        financial security incrementally and providing for your family.
        There was a lot of honor associated with that.


        This prosperity could also be subverted by some fabulous
        outbreak of hedonism. Achieving prosperity without hedonism will
        entail heroic leadership.


        At the far end of the lobby, an unimposing figure appears. He's
        thin, below average height, and peers through gold-rimmed
        glasses as he moves with a shambling walk - a nerd walk. It's
        the Idea Man himself, offering a mild handshake, a shy smile, a
        quiet greeting. His shoulders slope. He has the bad posture you
        get from leaning forward and staring into a video monitor 12
        hours a day. He also seems genuinely unpretentious, projecting a
        sincere, childlike charm. You begin to see why his employees
        speak of him protectively, as if he belongs to them, rather than
        vice versa. But when Gross walks into the small conference room
        at the far end of the lobby, his presence galvanizes the place.




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        all quotes from: Wired 7.09, September 1999




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                                          _____________________________
        a.s.ambulanzen                   |                ____         |
        berlin, germany                  |  PARTNER GEGEN |||| BERLIN  |
        http://rolux.org                 |_____________________________|





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