I'm looking for a short story collection (or
maybe anthology) from a while back, which
uniquely featured stories which were based on
economic principals. (So it advertised in the
blurb on the back of the jacket.)
The one story that stands out in my memory: In a
brief introduction, set in italics, two aliens
discuss a technology which when deposited on the
planet will wreck the earth's entire economic
system. The rest of the story, set in roman face,
describes the consequences of from the device. It
is some sort of matter replicator, capable of
assembling, from raw atoms, full-scale, viable
duplicates of whatever was placed on one side of
a pair of trays. The machine will duplicate food,
cars, diamonds, even more machines just like
itself. Somehow, and this part is fuzzy and hence
why I want to reread the story, free market
capitalism is able to take this device, which
renders production and its payment unnecessary,
and still figure out a way to make money from it.
I think the machines are then used for the mass
transport of goods to remote locations, but there
is more to it than that. The reader never finally
reads about the aliens and the failure of their
plans.
Does anyone know this one?
David Wright - Seattle Public Library Fiction Dept.
"Only cease to cherish opinions."
-3d patriarch of Zen
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