political, ideological, religious and other motivations are simply just mechanisms to acquire profit. Or power. And power is just another word for profit.

No, the real difference between you and me is that I don't feel the reflexive need to jump to the defense of the profit motive, probably because I never saw human society as an opportunity to enrich myself. And I certainly have no need to enrich myself at the expense of others. Business is not always a zero-sum game.

Sure, I desire money, and wealth as much as the next guy. I want to get paid for my work, and the more the better. But for me, financial wealth is the means to live a comfortable and interesting life. Once I pay my bills, have a little left over for recreation and pleasure, and a bit of my stash hidden away for a rainy day, I have everything I need and every thing I want. Getting more doesn't make me any happier. I do not deny my desire to amass wealth, but my appetite for it is finite. I suspect the mercantile mentality never has enough, and that is pathological.

Accumulating wealth is not a means of self-actualization for me, it is not the way I keep score and compare myself to my fellow man. It is not how I define myself and validate myself to others. For me, money is a tool, a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is not how I judge others and expect to be judged by others. Frankly, I don't care how much money you've got, just keep your hands off of my stack.

We live in a society obsessed with the concept of 'success', not with the production of that catalog of wonderful things you point out, but with the rewards which can be gained by selling those things. And if you can accumulate that success by manipulating finances, markets and other forms of abstractions, it doesn't really matter what kind of garbage you are selling. There's money in selling dope, or arms, human slaves, too, but just because there's a demand for it doesn't make it a good thing.

I'm a smart guy. I could have probably made a lot of money in business. I chose not to. I decided to try to learn something useful to others so I could sell my skills on a free market. It worked out just fine for me. I'm not rich, but I have everything I need and want and a little left over for emergencies. And I owe no one anything. The work I had to do to earn all this was fun, and it helped others, too. My conscience is clear..

And I am so proud to say that I have never profited from another man's labor. Unfortunately, others have profited from mine. But that's ok too. It is a small price to pay for living with a clear conscience and dignity. I define freedom that way. I do not define freedom as the opportunity to accumulate wealth indefinitely. That way lies madness and vice.

Besides. I thought we were talking about Artificial Intelligence.