Software is spawning revolutionary models for economic exchange and personal interaction

Software is a tool. Here are some examples of other tools that feel empowering for me to use and create: bicycles, sewing machines, books, rolling pins, typewriters, stilts, composting bins, megaphones, and many other things too of course. We can do great things with all these tools. We can do some great things with software too, and software has one important characteristic that separates it from most tools we use... it is infinitely and easily copyable. This ability to be copied may seem inconsequential, but in my opinion it gives software the potential to start a revolution! Let me explain more with an example... I could knit a pair of mittens, and then if I were feeling generous, I could give them away to you. Wouldn't it be cool though if, in the process of giving my mittens to you, I were able to retain a copy of them? Then I could share them with everyone! Well, maybe you don't want my silly mittens; but the point is that people become much more motivated to give things away when giving the item does not result in losing the item. This sharing/gifting mentality is incredibly subversive to the capitalist economy and culture in which we live. The more people give things away, the less they will come to expect (or worse: demand) things in return; and as people receive things for free (unconditionally), they will feel more empowered and less inclined to place monetary value on other objects, ideas, experiences, and relationships.

Now let's extend the example even further. But first a prologue: if I were selling mittens (and having to knit new ones for each sale) I'd probably be pretty attached to receiving the payment. Then if you and I were both selling mittens, our individual attachment to that money (and fear of losing it) would motivate us to compete with each other. Theoretically, that competition could motivate us to produce better mittens, but it likely would motivate us to cut corners, manipulate buyers, and grow to dislike each other in the process. Okay now the extended example: if you and I were both giving away mittens (and able to keep copies), we would have no need to fear loss of income. This absence of fear would allow us to collaborate in ways fostering innovation, compassion, and solidarity.

Academically speaking... through the combination of economic non-rivalry and durability, software is one of the few goods that creates gift economies in mainstream culture, specifically apropos open-source software.