Information

In chapter one of Jaron Lanier's Who Owns the Future? Lanier discusses technology's advancement and the price of information as technology arises. With technology improving vastly as the years pass, Lanier believes that rapidly progressing machines will become autonomous, resulting in their affecting of our economy. Lanier hopes to "portray an alternate future in which people are treated appropriately as being special." To do this Lanier suggests that we pay other people if they grant us information that is considered valuable. Now I see plenty of problems that could arise from this method, but it can also result in Lanier's vision for a better future that still involves highly advanced technology. In the end, the problem is whether or not Lanier's hope for the future is a solid one we can all enjoy, or if technology's progress is nothing to be feared and should be welcomed. In theory, or on paper, almost all well reasonably thought out theories and suggestions would seem to work, but in reality most never reach their full potential, so my question is this: Using common knowledge and resources from the book; if we were to pay others for information deemed valuable, what could be possible consequences and benefits and would Lanier's vision possibly come true or is it just that, a vision?