Another New Economy

August, 1998

Programmers are a strange bunch. One quality I have noticed is the relative disregard for money, once a basic level of comfort is reached. All over the world, people who never wanted anything other than a big computer and to wear jeans to work, are finding themselves on ridiculously big salaries.

Those programmers made the Internet, many see it as their tool for social change. Funny thing is, they seem to be right. But there are some places where the digital revolution has been stillborn by any of a dozen factors. Take Bulgaria for instance: Through the 80's they produced a wave of coders so skilled with machines they threatened to overwhelm the world with Viruses that were but a byproduct of their endeavour. Economic collapse ruined the country, and most of that computer culture. The few left do what they can on salaries of $20 a month. To me, that's lunch. To your average Silicon Valley Webmaster, it's pocket lint.

Add two more facts to the mix: Programmers are painted as uncommunicative, but that's just not true: We just talk best with like-minded people. Some would say we built the Net just so we could chat! Those Bulgarian coders will have programmer friends world wide. And second; digital cash is coming fast, a frictionless way for people to move money to other people, easily, in small amounts.

Here's the completed theory: Coders built a communications network, and made for themselves a culture that spans the world. That culture is based on information, because it's easy to move around. Money is being turned into information, and so the digital culture will soon have an economy not based on business, - or even welfare models - but on a hundred thousand friends lending money to each other. Because they can.