创业与商业fermatslibrary.com
星际贸易理论（1978）
The Theory of Interstellar Trade (1978)
2016 — 2020，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是 Fermat's Library 收录的保罗·克鲁格曼 1978 年论文《星际贸易理论》页面。论文把行星际贸易扩展到星际场景，核心问题是：当货物以接近光速运输时，运输途中的利息应如何计算——因为随货物运动的观察者与静止观察者测得的时间不同。克鲁格曼从经济理论给出一个解法，并证明两个“无用但为真”的定理；文章带有半开玩笑的性质。
为什么经久不衰：它用相对论时间膨胀把经济学理论推到荒诞极限，既短小机巧又触及跨恒星贸易与金融的概念问题，加上克鲁格曼后来的诺奖身份，使它成为反复被提起的经典。
HN 评论精选
概括论文的核心问题：近光速运输下的利息计算与时间膨胀。
摘要：本文把行星际贸易扩展到星际环境，主要关心一个问题：当货物以接近光速运输时，运输中货物的利息应如何计算？难点在于，运输时间对随货物运动的观察者来说，会比静止观察者测得的更短。作者从经济理论中导出一个解，并证明两个“无用但为真”的定理。
messe查看英文原文
Abstract: > This paper extends interplanetary trade to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: How should interest on goods in tranist be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved.
质疑星际贸易的现实商品基础：运输成本很可能高于本地制造或采集。
我想知道究竟什么商品值得在恒星系之间交易——即使某个星系有颗全由钻石构成的行星，在这里制造钻石肯定也比星际运输耗能少吧？同样，在我们太阳系里就能采集到大量黄金（铂、铑等等），何必运过来？就算有某种外星松露美味只长在外星恒星紫外光下的树荫里，在人工栖息地里培育也肯定比跨越几光年运输容易得多。
Johnny555查看英文原文
I'd be interested to know what possible commodity would be worth trading among star systems -- even if some star system has a planet made entirely of diamonds, surely it would take far less energy to made them here than to ship them between stars? Likewise, it seems that endless amounts of gold (platinum, rhodium, whatever) could be harvested from our own solar system before it's worth shipping here. Even if there's some alien truffle delicacy that only grows in the shade of a tree bathed in UV light from an alien star, surely that could be cultivated here in an artificial habitat far easier than shipping it light years across the galaxy?
推荐《Neptune's Brood》，并引用克鲁格曼称其为该题材唯一/最佳作品。
任何关于星际贸易的讨论都值得提一下查尔斯·斯特罗斯那本精彩的《海王星之眠》（Neptune's Brood）。我原以为它大致是《土星之子》的续作，结果读到的是一部关于跨多个恒星系经济体的货币政策论著。“慢钱/快钱”的概念及其影响非常迷人，单凭这些探讨这本书就值得读（情节也不差）。我随手一搜还找到克鲁格曼的相关博文，他说这本书是迄今该题材最好的作品，因为据他所知也是唯一一本。
careersuicide查看英文原文
Any discussion of interstellar trade deserves a mention of the fantastic Charles Stross book "Neptune's Brood". I went into it expecting more or less a sequel to "Saturn's Children" but what I got was a treatise on monetary policy for economies that span multiple star systems. The concept of slow and fast money and its implications is utterly fascinating and the book is worth reading just for its explorations of the topic (the plot isn't too bad either). A quick Google search brought me to this post by Krugman[0]: I’m reading an advance copy of Charlie Stross’s Neptune’s Brood. (Hey, I have connections!) And it is the best thing by far written on the subject to date, partly because it is, as far as I know, the only thing written on the subject to date. 0: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/the-theory-of-interstellar-finance/
借这篇讽刺理论经济学中形式化工作的价值与资源成本。
我知道克鲁格曼这篇是半开玩笑，但“数学”经济学里很多理论味很重的工作也类似：晦涩、科学价值存疑。克鲁格曼曾在自传性文章里说，经济学是那些搞不定数学、物理或其他硬核 STEM 领域的人才会进入的领域；年轻经济学者证明自己聪明的方式之一，就是先放一堆数学烟花，再转去做“真正”重要的研究。我们可以笑这篇，但供养一个产出与此相差不大的经济学理论界，其巨大资源成本并不可笑。
mmhsieh查看英文原文
I realize that Krugman was being tongue in cheek in this work, but a lot of the work in theory-heavy areas of "mathematical" economics are similar exercises in obscurity and dubious scientific value. Krugman, in one of his autobiographical essays, described economics as the field that people get into when they can't hack it in math, physics or some other high-rigor STEM field. Part of proving one's intelligence as a junior economics faculty member is doing a lot of mathematically-heavy fireworks and then moving on to "real" research that matters. We can laugh at this one but what is not laughable is the huge resource cost in supporting an academic economics establishment (at least in the theory area) whose product is actually not that much different from this.
历次讨论
同类还值得读
微软已死（2007）
Microsoft is Dead (2007)
Paul Graham 2007 年的一篇短文，判断微软在互联网与创业竞争中已不再令人畏惧、失去影响力——所谓“死”并非字面倒闭。
创业与商业上首页 8 次 · 2007–2025paulgraham.comH&R Block 与 Intuit 游说反对简化报税（2017）
H&R Block and Intuit Lobbying Against Simpler Tax Filing (2017)
2017年ProPublica调查报道梳理了H&R Block和Intuit如何通过游说反对更简单的美国报税方式，尤其是政府预填税表和免费申报等改革。
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2017–2022propublica.org你本不该有老板
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss (2008)
Paul Graham 2008 年的经典文章，论证人类在演化中习惯于小团体协作，而大公司的层级结构和老板制度是人为产物，对程序员尤其有害——因为编程的本质是创造新事物，而大公司…
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2008–2020paulgraham.com为什么要在经济糟糕时创业
Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy
Paul Graham 的经典短文，论证经济衰退并不是创业的障碍：真正决定成败的是创始人和产品，而非宏观环境；衰退期反而竞争更少、人才更易招、成本更低。
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2008–2022paulgraham.com做那些不可规模化的事
Do Things that Don't Scale
Paul Graham 2013 年的经典创业文章《Do Things that Don't Scale》。
创业与商业上首页 4 次 · 2013–2025paulgraham.com编辑精选