The First Trillionaire

if you want to be the first trillionaire (or even just be in the top 1%) you need to abstract economic exchange even further away from the human body.

body -> gesture -> oral language -> symbolic thinking -> agriculture/food as reserve energy -> writing -> number -> currency -> debt -> property -> humans as bodies (slaves) equity -> capital/labor -> widget -> factory/industry -> information -> intellectual property -> computation -> machines as slaves -> computational property -> ?????????

the increase in "wealth" in humanity is tied to a reduction in the contingency of the body/fungibility of the body. the increase in average span of life is a side effect of the body not being necessary to power society. it's perhaps a nice side effect but it also means most humans are going to be unable to actually participate in economic exchange over time unless they find a way to expand their extent via computational versions of themselves. personhood will be defined by the abstracted, computational footprint credited to a named body.

the variety of personhood expression increases, which is the upside. but only so much as people realize that having a body is not enough.

pretty weird thought. but really think about how you actually have personhood, citizenship, autonomy, reputation, gravitas, accreditation, etc. consider the various political/social inequalities we maintain - they are all very abstracted notions... where political power never recognizes violence unless it directly involves the mutilation of the recognized, physical body.

and if you want to get really weird... where exactly does free will play out in the heirarchy of abstracted existence? does electric yous dream of sheep?

but again, if you want to get extremely rich focus on abstracting economic exchange further from the human body.