CYBERSPACE EASES THE PAIN, BUT...

摘要

Niko Bellic, the main character in the best-selling video game Grand Theft Auto IV, spends a lot of time driving around the virtual world of Liberty City-but he never hasrnto stop to buy gas. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between the digital economy and the oil economy. The digital economy is a culture of abundance. It's virtually costless to duplicate something online, whether it be music, software, or even news. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and MySpace all vie to attract customers to their plentiful free offerings. By comparison, the oil economy embodies the culture of scarcity, wherein traders try to figure just how much petroleum is left in the world and just how high the price of oil can go.