Digital Economics (Kinda)

I've touched on economics once before, with Adam Smith and the invisible hand/market economy discussion. But, as with most things, more thoughts and discussions have been added to economic theory since then. To be honest, I had a different post already written on the development of economic theory, but during class I got several ideas that I wanted to run with instead. If you'd like a good history of the progression of economic model check out Rhett's post on economics.

This is an economic systems model- used merely to point out the connectedness discussed shortly.

It was fascinating to me today as I sat in class within the swirl of discussion on game theory, economics and the changing economies in relation to technology. As I've felt many times before in my Digital Civilization class, everything is connected. Suddenly I was scribbling furiously in my notebook (the paper kind, not the electronic one) about the similarities between economies and the digital culture/networks. And here are some observations I made...

- Current networks and websites can act as an economic system in the fact of the trading/buying/selling of information. That, as a whole, benefits anyone who wants such information.

- These systems can get replaced or modified as they fail to keep up with development. Facebook is, in an sense, a better Myspace. And Google in it's present state has largely eclipsed Yahoo and many other email networks due to the number of features it offers and problems it solves.

-In the credit card discussion in class (specifically the disassociation of signing your name an paying for something), it reminded me that there is a disconnect in this generation between the publicity of information, including personal info, and the consequences and dangers of having that information public.

- It has been a trend in history that economic systems go through booms and busts, even periods of rapid growth, recessions and depressions. So will the digital model or system experience that? Right now it is expanding at an unprecedented rate, but can this digital progression hit a depression? What would cause that?

I love seeing all these connections! Many more post will follow in the next couple day because my head and notes are full of things I need to post : )