[117689] in Cypherpunks
Re: Tuesday 9/8 Digital Commerce Society of Boston meeting
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Wed Sep 8 23:53:39 1999
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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 22:53:59 -0400
To: dcsb@ai.mit.edu, Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>,
cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 22:12:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andrew Odlyzko <amo@research.att.com>
To: goodell@mediaone.net
Cc: rah@shipwright.com
Subject: Re: Tuesday 9/8 Digital Commerce Society of Boston meeting
Howie,
Bob Hettinga forwarded your notes on my talk yesterday. They
are very accurate, given the constraints you had. Below I respond
to the question you did not get to ask:
[I add one I didn't get to ask:]
Q: Dr. Odlyzko's examples mostly involve some form of monopoly
competition: copyrighted or patented goods; natural monopolies
like local phone service, or high barriers to entering e.g. auto or
microprocessor production. Is it a part of his argument that the prices
of commoditized goods *will* fall close to their production costs,
leaving these exceptions as a proportionally larger part of what we
spend money on? If so, then a major goal of social design should be to
minimize unproductive "rents" (as well as other negative
externalities like loss of privacy, the "tragedy of the digital
commons") while still allowing economically useful price
discrimination.
For instance, while remaining fully anonymous, I might present a
trustworthy digital credential that my income was below a certain
level to purchase a product at a reduced price.
My guess is that producers will be working very hard to avoid
dealing with commoditized goods. As for minimizing 'unproductive
"rents",' I agree with your sentiments, but suspect it will be
harder and harder to define them. Is Madonna collecting such
right now, for example?
Best regards,
Andrew
************************************************************************
Andrew Odlyzko amo@research.att.com
AT&T Labs - Research voice: 973-360-8410
http://www.research.att.com/~amo fax: 973-360-8178
************************************************************************
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
