Providing free services in exchange for access to knowledge and the resulting economy environment that fosters cooperation rather than corporation, sharing and partnership over competition, and in the stead of a patent portfolio, bragging rights to what is shared.
A fully automated supply chain of goods and services, will be the norm in a few generations. Lazy will be a viable option for the entire population. I do not, however, believe that that lazy as an evolutionary trait, is a net plus, and consequently will be selected out, even as the selection process moves from carbon to silicon. Between 10E2 - 10E5 years, some people may produce little value, and would have proportional consequence on history.
Innate curiosity, playfulness, or alpha bragging rights, or more primordial urges will keep others efforting to make effective use of their time which will ultimately make the lives of other better.
A landscape where the notion of competition is largely ignored is so foreign. Production and resources are created out of the ether by consumers with the desire for knowledge and experiences. The information they need, be it through search, collaboration, mail, and even data and application hosting. Providing their users efficient access to information is the end goal. Doing this well has proven so profitable that no other business strategy has every been necessary. Google wants to create a new access platform in to improve access, endeavoring to do the very best job possible at providing consumers with access to knowledge anywhere. Building the most profitable search engine, cloud computing platform, phone service, or operating system has never been Google's goal. The simply want provide those resources so you can get the information you want when and where you want it. This simple and benevolent concept in concert with advertising, has with proven one of the most profitable business ventures in the history of man.
The advertising angle is another cooperative endeavor. If you know what people are looking for, you can in the course helping them find related information also help them find related commercially available goods and services.
