Jan 28 2012: You have a wonderful idea, and I hope that it will gain more publicity. Does WeSolver have a facebook page, a twitter account, or a youtube channel?
I think the problem is that our society functions on acquisition.
Yes, to acquire is a natural instinct due to self-preservation. However, selfishness is only one of many motivators of human behavior - and we now see that it is a rather precarious one as the ethos of a society.
What if, instead, a society functions on giving?
Human social evolution researchers theorize that it is due to an advancement in our ancestors' evolved ability to collaborate in larger numbers that the first large societies emerged. Perhaps we must transcend our primeval instincts once more to accommodate ourselves to our evermore connected society. In the context of intellectual property and the internet, the application of this is to rid of copyright altogether. All information will then become necessarily unshackled from "acquisition" motivated behavior.
Practical considerations:
1) Will there still be motivation to produce goods?
2) What will the producers eat?
3) What about quality?
1) There are many nonprofit producers of goods/services on the net (10,000,000 soundcloud artists, 80,000 Wikipedia editors, Linux, deviantart, etc). Here is a study by Heyman and TEDster Dan Ariely on how monetary motivation does not trump social motivation: http://bit.ly/3xzhna
2) This answer requires a bit of rosy optimism. Ideally, the users of goods/services will support the producers voluntarily, altruistically. The only example of success in this area is Wikipedia, and yet they are still supported by volunteers. However, there is evidence that by participating in a profit-driven system, we are robbed of our motivation to give. Study on how once money is introduced, social norms disappear: http://bit.ly/m8tSsc. Study on how even the concept of money reduces collaborative behavior: http://bit.ly/cHwdD
3) If there is motivation to produce, competition will ensure quality. Here is Dan Pink on intrinsic > extrinsic(monetary) motivation: http://bit.ly/t5WEsL
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A reply on Conversation: create a wiki based website which will allow everyone to collaborate to solve the most important problems that face all of us.
A comment on Conversation: How would an economic system not based on the acquisition of material wealth work?
I think the problem is that our society functions on acquisition.
Yes, to acquire is a natural instinct due to self-preservation. However, selfishness is only one of many motivators of human behavior - and we now see that it is a rather precarious one as the ethos of a society.
What if, instead, a society functions on giving?
Human social evolution researchers theorize that it is due to an advancement in our ancestors' evolved ability to collaborate in larger numbers that the first large societies emerged. Perhaps we must transcend our primeval instincts once more to accommodate ourselves to our evermore connected society. In the context of intellectual property and the internet, the application of this is to rid of copyright altogether. All information will then become necessarily unshackled from "acquisition" motivated behavior.
Practical considerations:
1) Will there still be motivation to produce goods?
2) What will the producers eat?
3) What about quality?
1) There are many nonprofit producers of goods/services on the net (10,000,000 soundcloud artists, 80,000 Wikipedia editors, Linux, deviantart, etc). Here is a study by Heyman and TEDster Dan Ariely on how monetary motivation does not trump social motivation: http://bit.ly/3xzhna
2) This answer requires a bit of rosy optimism. Ideally, the users of goods/services will support the producers voluntarily, altruistically. The only example of success in this area is Wikipedia, and yet they are still supported by volunteers. However, there is evidence that by participating in a profit-driven system, we are robbed of our motivation to give. Study on how once money is introduced, social norms disappear: http://bit.ly/m8tSsc. Study on how even the concept of money reduces collaborative behavior: http://bit.ly/cHwdD
3) If there is motivation to produce, competition will ensure quality. Here is Dan Pink on intrinsic > extrinsic(monetary) motivation: http://bit.ly/t5WEsL