(this was inspired by a point made in david sheilds' 'reality hunger' that there was a major shift in culture when it became cheaper to print a book than to alter one. printing a new book became the way to make money and the power (as well as profit) fell into the hands of the creators. now, things are shifting. once again altering a book is cheaper than creating one. so, perhaps, the money and power are shifting away from the creators, toward the alters. or, as sheilds says, "now relationships, links, connections, and sharing are [the basis of wealth]. value has shifted away from a copy toward the may ways to recall, annotate, personalize, edit, authenticate, display, mark transfer, and engage a work. art is a conversion, not a patent office. the citation of sources belongs to the realms of journalism and scholarship, not art. reality can't be copyrighted.')
capitalism is the system of controlling and ensuring the circulation of resources by creating a imaginary mediating object, money. it works to motivate people to find resources, shape resources and design them.
it is based on the assumption that everything can be attached to a monitary value. this assumption has been true for most of the life of capitalism.
lately something is changing. lately information has been increasingly de-monied and therefore operates further and further outside of the capitalist system.
mental resources are decreasingly circulated by the forces capitalism can sway. physical resources are still moved and kept moving by money.
information and materials are operating on different systems.
we have no system to control information in the way we can control resources. if we do, we have no name for it. if we have a name for it, nobody has told me.
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