serf, not surf.

remember serfs? feudal economy? the lord of the manor owns the land, divides it into smaller plots which he allows the serfs to live on in exchange for the serfs' farming the land and working in the forest, the mine, the quarry, etc. the lord takes a portion of the crops and in exchange provides protection from the weather (house) and from outsiders and a system of justice for the manor.

these were agricultural serfs, working the land. they weren't free - they were bound by the lord to the land, but if things went well, their work enabled them to sustain themselves and their families. as opposed to free men who worked the land to sustain themselves, serfs worked IN EXCHANGE FOR protection, justice, etc.

i don't want to get into a big explanation of feudalism. you can look that up.

so, feudalism. blah-blah. time marches on, and a few hundred years later, the industrial age dawns. men go to work in factories, in exchange for money, which they used to purchase goods and services. we're back to "in exchange for" but it's not in exchange for something concrete -- it's work in exchange for a philosophical construct designed to facilitate exchange.

it's a progression.
1. free men live on and work their own land and protect themselves, to manufacture their own sustenance.
2. agricultural serfs live on and work the lord's land in exchange for protection and the right to manufacture their own sustenance.
3. industrial laborers live outside of and work in the lord's factory, making something solid in exchange for something they can exchange for protection and sustenance.

yes. i am totally shortcutting it, and that's because i know you are smart enough to keep up.

so here we are in the post-industrial knowledge economy, where we live outside of and work in the lord's factory, making something that isn't solid at all, in exchange for something we can exchange for protection and sustenance.

so. now.

now, we are on the verge of a sea-change -- where the feudal system will resurge in the knowledge economy. we will live in the lord's houses and work the knowledgescape to grow the knowledge crop. we will do this in exchange for protection and sustenance.

this will happen in part because of the rise of the power of knowledge and in part because of the collapse of exchange based (i.e., monetary) systems. when the exchanges collapse, compensation for labor will revert to direct - we'll be paid in housing, food, clothes, entertainment.

might not be today.

might not be tomorrow.

but one day soon, we will be knowledge serfs.