some notes from the “scifi economics lab” https://scifieconomicslab.net/

introductions

• https://edgeryders.eu/t/meet-the-lab-rats-a-thread-for-sci-fi-economics-lab-folks-to-introduce-themselves/11480

talks on 2019-11-11

• Cory Doctorow, Tom Bauler and Kirsten Dunlop
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i9lSDIIjH8

collective notes from the talks

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GJfbJIvq933Yd7KQtxPDYKpHPIajC1kvGkG7w7eppCA/edit#heading=h.3h58ihwlhu2y

Cory Doctorow

• Peak indifference https://locusmag.com/2016/07/cory-doctorow-peak-indifference/
  • navigating shifts from 'denialism' to 'nihilism' as an activist
  • from awareness of issues, to awareness of possibilities
• democratic shifts in ownership of digital infrastrucutre, digital feudualism → cooperatives(?)
  • democratically owned means of production AND methods of allocation (e.g. uber as coop)
• monopoly & oligarchic concentration → eg. https://locusmag.com/2019/05/cory-doctorow-steering-with-the-windshield-wipers/][Luxottica

Tom Bauler

• macroeconomic indicators beyond GDP
• https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-reinhart-and-rogoff-controversy-a-summing-up][The Reinhart and Rogoff Controversy: A Summing Up (re. public debt rates, human error & replication)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_economics
• focus on 'resources' is relatively recent in economics (circa ~1970) after long absence
• principles of ecological economics
  • list?

• in creating alternatives, focus on what to replciate in existing sytems, as well as what needs to be removed/eliminated

various refs/further

• comment from M. Bauwens, re Chiang Mai → “hard to find ppl who want to work for money”
• “changemakers” (via rob) → https://www.changemakers.com/
• capital poor / labour rich → transitions in commons (ref. Ostrom)
• pluralism, anit-monopoly, anti-oligarchy
• parallels with emergence of 'ecology' as way of unifying concerns around existing issues, previously seen as disparate (e.g. land conservation, species, clean air, etc)
• is there a current set of concerns (re. concentration, ologarchy, monoploies, etc) that can be unified with ecology, complexity, etc? (e.g. climate change & concentration of pro-wrestling leagues?)