[pg-gadfly]

I think the author is giving lots of value to computation itself, which is not how humans generally allocate it. It's results are seen just as another generic resource.

What do people do when clean water becomes nearly free? They do ridiculously inefficient things. It's easy, efficient use of truly limited resources, like _time_.

There is a reason we don't optimize things beyond their economic value; because it was designed to optimize total resource use.

[hootbootscoot]

or perhaps indicative of what "economic value" means in the context of a finite planet with finite resources.

I think you DID nail the needed change point right on the head. Our economic system prioritizes "anyone should be able to do anything at any time for a price, but the price externalities and waste are irrelevant."

I'll draw a parallel with PC's "This thing should be able to do anything at anytime and be everything to everyone" vs "this device runs circuitry and control loops that optimally manage a given pre-described domain"