The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times. IT companies make a lot of money selling equipment that facilitates this ceaseless copying. Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.Our digital communication network has been engineered so that copies flow with as little friction as possible. Indeed, copies flow so freely we could think of the internet as a super-distribution system, where once a copy is introduced it will continue to flow through the network forever, much like electricity in a superconductive wire. We see evidence of this in real life. Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with internet, it will be copied, and those copies never leave. Even a dog knows you can’t erase something once it’s flowed on the internet.
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From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free.
In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them “generatives.” A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.
Tags: freedom, opensource
Fascinating article in full. Thanks. I’ve added Kevin Kelly to my ever-expanding RSS feeds. Yikes, what a tool! I remember when Doug Hill bought a digital watch for $2000 in maybe 1975. It was amazing to all of us. He bought it because he could, not because it had any intrinsic value — as evidenced by the cost of digital clocks today.
Kelly’s generative values are fascinating and certainly are on the mark regarding the changing state of copyright. I’ve moved from someone who was morally offended by a copyright infringement to someone who thinks everything should be available to everyone. I love the story about Radiohead’s song for “pay what you want to pay.” Amazing how the “value” increased when people placed their own value on the commodity.
Keep up the great work, Lucas, and thanks for your blog. Always keeps me on my toes.