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Old 08-13-2009, 09:15 AM   #8
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Sectors of an Ultra-Tech/Bio-Tech economy

Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Joy View Post
Off the top of my head:
• fuel production
• energy weapons
• bio/medical tech
• nanotech
• spacecraft
• communication/media/sensor/security tech
• computer tech
• power distribution tech
• personal vehicles
• construction
Judging by conditions in the United States, if you view health care as an industrial sector rather than a public service, it could easily become quite large. I'm going to suggest one-third of the economy, assuming that things have advanced to the point of massive life extension . . . not immortality or fundamental genetic fixes, but just ensuring that the normal person lives to a hundred or so.

Intangible industries are also going to be important. How big an entertainment, recreation, and tourism sector will there be? What about the "finance, insurance, and real estate" sector?

Going by the "rise of the creative class" thesis, the creation of new content seems likely to be economically important. So would there perhaps be a basic research sector absorbing maybe 5-10% of economic activity?

What about secondary scientific activity? Already there are important abstracting journals and research services. Imagine an economic situation where (a) science has grown even larger and more difficult to keep track of, (b) productive research often comes about because some enterpreneurial scientist sees a payoff in taking a result from field A and examining it in light of theoretical models from field B, and (c) such entrepreneurs of science make up a substantial economic sector in their own right.

Then there is Vernor Vinge's bit where a starship travels from one solar system to another carrying a precious cargo of—long random numbers usable for encryption! It's about as high a value-to-weight ratio as you're likely to get.

Bill Stoddard
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