From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hplabsb!soreff Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: Information Economy Article-I.D.: hplabsb.1304 Posted: Sat Jan 22 10:12:49 1983 Received: Mon Jan 24 05:56:16 1983 References: utcsrgv.909 Does Masuda propose that information products will replace housing, food, energy, transportation, and so on? I could see how the information intensive products might continue to grow in sales volume when the conventional markets have saturated, but this only happens AFTER the bulk of the population is well-housed, well-fed, etc. I don't see why the non-information products sector should shrink in industrialized nations. I also don't see why the existence of information products will make satisfying undeveloped nation's preferences any easier. Calculators don't substitute for indoor plumbing. -Jeffrey Soreff (hplabsb!soreff)