1. Phillip Kenneth Salin was an American economist and futurist, best known for his contributions to theories about the development of cyberspace and as a proponent of private space exploration and development.
13 Facts About Phil Salin
1. 2.
Phil Salin's father was Lothar Phil Salin, a psychotherapist and public interest activist in San Rafael.
3.
Phil Salin earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UCLA in 1970, and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
4.
On February 28,1984, Phil Salin testified to the US House Space Science and Applications Subcommittee of the Committee on Science and Technology, stating that NASA had substantially underestimated the cost of its launches and thus was massively subsidizing them, harming other competitors such as the Atlas and Delta rockets.
5.
NASA's published cost and price of $71 million per launch contrasted with Phil Salin's calculated costs of $200 to $250 million per launch.
6.
In 1984 Phil Salin founded the American Information Exchange, a network for the buying and selling of information, goods and services.
7.
Phil Salin invented the concepts of smart contracts, and buying and selling which are now considered standard ecommerce.
8.
AMIX folded in 1993 after Phil Salin had died and it was unable to raise additional venture capital.
9.
Phil Salin recognized that the growth in the power of computers and telecommunications, and the reduction in costs would reduce the transaction costs of exchanging knowledge, with strong attendant benefits to humankind.
10.
Phil Salin opposed patents on software because of the limitations on free speech and the restrictions patents posed to the growth of knowledge by stopping competition between ideas.
11.
Phil Salin submitted a comment to the US Patent Office to this effect.
12.
Phil Salin was a science fiction fan, and his major influences and favorite writers included Robert A Heinlein, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises and other Austrian economists and political philosophers.
13.
Phil Salin enjoyed fantasy, collected comic books, and read voluminously in all areas of fantasy and science fiction.