The Myth of Scarcity, or Verizon-MCI is Doomed

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dana Blankenhorn <danablankenhorn () mindspring com>
Date: May 2, 2005 3:08:43 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: The Myth of Scarcity, or Verizon-MCI is Doomed
Reply-To: Dana Blankenhorn <dana () a-clue com>


For IP, if you wish

http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/archives/2005/05/02/ 
the_myth_of_scarcity.php
May 02, 2005
The Myth of Scarcity
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
The bidding war between Verizon and Qwest for MCI is based on a myth  
of scarcity. That is, both think they can make the deal pay by  
squeezing customers for the scarce resources represented by the MCI  
network.

Moores Law of Fiber rendered that inoperative many years ago. There  
is no shortage of fiber backbone capacity. And there are ample  
replacements for Plain Old Telephone Service -- not just cable but  
wireless.

The myth on which this deal is based is, simply, untrue.

Yet the myth persists, and not just in the telecommunications business.

In the news business, we have Phil Anschutz creating newspapers and  
PBS being pushed to the political right based on the same scarcity  
myth. There's only one newspaper, there is only one PBS, so if we  
control it with our politics people will have to think what we tell  
them to think.

Nonsense. There is no scarcity of outlets for either local or  
national news. You're reading this, aren't you?

The same scarcity myth has long underlain the FCC's regulation of  
broadcast content. The FCC regulates what is broadcast only because  
there is a limited frequency spectrum, thus limited choice in each  
market. Without that myth all content regulation is a direct  
violation of the First Amendment.

And it is a myth. Moore's Law of Radios proves it. Cellular telephony  
proves it. Frequencies can be re-used, and transmit far more than we  
once thought. The resource is, in fact, practically unlimited.

(Of course genius, as in this picture called Scarcity by Saul  
Lishinsky, is always in short supply. From The New Deal Network.)

Yet politicians on both sides persist in believing these myths. We  
insist on believing there is scarcity in food, when there isn't. We  
act like there's a scarcity of energy. There isn't. We just haven't  
figured out how to efficiently harness the energy that's all around us.

I think Isaac Asimov's story Nightfall provides an answer as to why  
this is so. Written at the start of a career legendary for its  
output, it tells the story of a society that destroyed itself every  
10,000 years, every time all its suns went into eclipse and people  
realized how infinite the universe actually is.

All efforts at controlling the mind are subject to this myth of  
scarcity. Try to control education and smart kids learn to reject  
you. Try to control the Internet and Chinese people learn just how  
precious a sip of freedom is, while the rest of us get bored by the  
firehose.

Freedom is the answer to tyranny because freedom creates abundance,  
or discovers the abundance that is in fact all around us.

To all those who feel oppressed, no matter their cause, I hope this  
brings some comfort. In the end, freedom will win out. Maybe not  
today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even in your lifetime, but it  
will. Freedom, knowledge, and truth are all plastic, all powerful,  
and all unlimited.

The universe, whether we're talking about your mind, this planet, or  
the stars themselves, is far more infinite than you or I can possibly  
know.

And the only way to get a taste of it is to open your mind, as  
scientists do, and prepare always to have it changed.


Dana Blankenhorn   danablankenhorn () mindspring com
Mooreslore Blog    http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/
ZDNet OpenSource    http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/index.php
A-Clue.Com    http://www.a-clue.com dana () a-clue com





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