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The Promised Market

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.1

—Albert Camus

Amara’s Law says we overestimate in the short term and underestimate in the long.2 So, when I ask you to look at a number of Intention Economy scenarios that should be common a few years from now, I probably overestimate the speed at which this new economy will develop. I do not, however, overestimate the ambitions of developers or the eventual effects of their work.

What follow are scenarios from the near future—say five or ten years out—involving an American mother traveling with her family, experiencing the Intention Economy at work. I address her in the present tense.

While the ...

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