Futurist Peter de Jager penned this thoughtful essay about what happens when technology creates abundance where there used to be scarcity. It’s not always a good thing: Think of obesity, traffic jams, spam.
“A technology which has, as its primary advantage, an ability to create abundance, carries within it the potential to create problems invulnerable to simplistic solutions. Like genies let loose from the bottle, they are almost impossible to control. We can’t solve traffic congestion by reducing the speed of traffic to 10 KM/Hr. Nor can we solve obesity by reducing the shelves in the supermarket, or Spam by making it difficult and costly to send e-mail.”
(via BoingBoing)