Ecstasy Industry and Pleasure Economy
Ecstasy Industry and Pleasure Economy
The rise of pleasure economy has just shown：In our age, an unprecedented revolution is happening: In the past, only products in kind could increase wealth，but now “joy” can also boost economic development.
According to the definition in Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, “pleasure” means “making people happy” or “joyous activity”. Pleasure economy is meant to make pleasure, being an enjoyable economy. Seeking pleasure is a human nature, and people are ready to give alms liberally in order to get pleasure. America’s Hollywood, Japan’s Nintendo and Hong Kong’s entertainment circle have been operating pleasure as an industry for a long time, and their rich profit is amazing! In Japan’s economy, 20% of the earning comes from the electronic game trade in the entertainment industry. America’s audio-video product is the second greatest export commodity only secondary to plane export. A drama is a market and an industry that may bring profit for several years, one decade or several decades. The global income from one musical opera, “Miss Saigon” has exceeded 1.3 billion US dollars. “Lion King” earned 0.74 billion US dollars in the world. “Space Fighter 7” game was sold in 6 million copies all over the world, bringing a sales amount of 0.3 billion US dollars! On the day when “Space Fighter 8” was put onto the market, as many as 2.5 million copies were sold, with a sales amount exceeding 0.1 billion US dollars. In Britain, the economical income from arts has exceeded that from the automotive industry. Korea’s game industry has built up a production value approximately 20 billion US dollars, with a growth rate as high as 40%，and will become the most profitable industry in the country. SONY, Intel, Microsoft and some other famous companies are marching into the field of digital entertainment with one accord coincidentally, just as the saying goes, “Great minds think alike”. Bill Gates said, seeing that the game industry is flourishing increasingly, he will list the game industry development as the central task of Microsoft’s future development. Microsoft’s Asian Academy set “digital entertainment” as their major direction in research long ago，which has made Microsoft transform from a software empire into an entertainment consumption empire.
Pleasure economy will play a very eye-catching role in future. Any enterprise with an acute sense to the market will be aware of a new flying chance is coming, and pleasure economy is increasingly becoming a focus point attracting entrepreneurs, economists and futurists. The rise of pleasure economy has just shown：In our age, an unprecedented revolution is happening: In the past, only products in kind could add to wealth，but now “joy” can also boost economic development.
Among the majority of Chinese people, few of them have a good impression of pleasure, entertainment, or games. People tend to think games are only things for children, and the entertainment industry is usually not regarded as a regular occupation. But the fact is quite different：Today, 3/4 of computer entertainment software users are adults above 18, and 82% of them are in the age range of 25－55. Moreover, the players’ educational status is generally quite high.
We really need an ideological revolution, and a thought liberation!
Seeking pleasure and avoiding suffering is a fundamental humanity. At the bottom，all human activities are for pleasure. With regard to our understanding of playing，let’s lend an ear to what the famous economist Yu Guangyuan said: “Playing is one of the basic needs of human life, and is a human instinct”, “We should have a playing culture，should study the science of playing, master the techniques of playing and develop the art of playing”. The German thinker Shiller had a famous viewpoint in his Letters on Esthetic Education as early as 200 years ago: “Only when a man is a man in the full sense can he play, and only when a man is playing can he be regarded as a full man.” Along with the continual development of the society, our material life is getting extremely rich, so our human nature of pleasure seeking will be shown more and more clearly. When the basic human needs of survival have been met, people will certainly seek pleasure more eagerly and increase their expenditure in amusement.
We often hear Internet economy is an “attention economy”, and an “eyeball economy”, but in fact, essentially, Internet economy should be called a “pleasure economy”. Whether to steal the spotlight or keep the attention，we need to depend on amusement. Ding Lei, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Netease, one of China’s three major web sites, made a prompt decision：To develop on-line gaming and take on-line gaming as Netease’ key point in forthcoming development. Ding Lei said: “Last week, I went to some Internet bars inland for investigation. I took a look at 45 Internet bars. It is hard to imagine: 99% of the people were playing OICQ, they took a great delight from the chatting, and many people could chat for a whole night. Chatting could give people illusions. One man could chat with two girls at the same time, and also fool another boy, which could meet his desire for fancying to a great extent. Some others were playing games，especially online games…” According to a survey，most of the netizens access the Internet just for chatting and playing games. Of course，the pleasure from the Internet is never only from chatting and gaming, but we can see that people’s greatest interest lies in pleasure, and their greatest wish is that the net will bring pleasure to them, the pleasure that is hard to come in reality! So, it is evident that the key to whether a net company can profit or not just lies in whether it can “bring pleasure to people”.
The effect of pleasure economy on future economy will be all-round, and the key to the success of most future industries will just lie in whether they can bring pleasure to people successfully. Nowadays，from performance to marketplace shopping，from finance companies to stock market information，from traditional dining and drinking to new-styled mobile phones，the amusement element is infiltrating into each sector of the whole economy. The greatest function of amusement is to make people ready to accept. If a product has an amusing effect, everyone will like to use it；If a brand has an amusing effect, everyone will be ready to a take to it. All kinds of industries and trades must try their best to offer pleasure functions, pleasure services and pleasure activities，so as to meet customers’ pleasure demand to the greatest extent. Mcdonald’s president said: “Remember: We do not belong to the dining industry，but belong to the amusement industry.” A great many children cry for eating Mcdonald’s，just because they want to collect the set of novelty toys offered by Mcdonald’s. In the economic activity from now on, amusement will never be a specified or limitary industry，as any industry or trade must be transformed by the amusement element. All traditional basic necessities of life should be added with an amusing function if you want them to have a greater competitive power. The future clothes will be high-tech clothes that can bring a happy mood to you when you put them on, the future food will be amusing food; the future house will be a “pleasure house”: a joyful paradise in every aspect, such as the modeling, design, color, temperature, humidity, smell, sounding and so on…
“Ecstasy” here refers to utmost pleasure, or greatest joy. The ecstasy industry is an industry that offers people the utmost joy, making both “quality” (from the low-leveled joy to the high-leveled joy) and “quantity” of the joy (from the low-degreed joy to the high-degreed joy; from temporary pleasure to daylong pleasure) reach an unprecedented height.
The ecstasy industry is a great industry with limitless charm, and is the mega trend of pleasure economy development. The ecstasy industry is more advanced, more forward-looking and more humane than the ordinary amusement industry. In order to seek the utmost pleasure, the ecstasy industry depends on the magical power of high technology more than the ordinary amusement. The more we let high technology participate, the more possible for us to help people get the utmost pleasure. Such an amusement has an unprecedented and enigmatical charm. So to speak，whoever has invested in the ecstasy industry and mastered the high-tech amusement will hold the key to the door of wealth.
High technology will play a shocking role in changing our pleasure experience.
– Combination between biotechnology and information technology may bring us more vivid virtual experience
In today’s amusement, 4 kinds of information takes the predominance：digit, word, sound and image. Information may also come from many other forms，such as olfaction, gustation, touch, imagination, intuition and so on. In future，high and new technology development of all the other information forms such as olfaction, gustation may be put into commercial use, too. So far, some corporations have already worked out digital odors，for instance，the basic factors of an odor may be expressed in digits, then loaded onto a moderately priced chip. Just imagine: You may get an electronic greeting card emitting a fragrant smell; You are watching a digital film with a unique smell effect; Or even you can touch the petticoat of the heroine in the teleplay and have the real tactile sensation, and you may dance together with her… Everything will show a wonderful virtual world that is “more realistic than the reality”.
—- Virtual reality technology can simulate the real world vividly, transcending space and time，and can put people in it completely
The famous director Spielberg named his film-making company “Visional Factory”，which can offer people a surreal visional world，enabling them to get a lot of special experience and pleasure. However，all such traditional amusements as seeing a movie, watching TV or reading a novel have a great shortcoming：You cannot participate in it or interact with it, but just are a passive looker and recipient. By dint of high technology，we shall not be passive, shall not just receive, but can participate and experience directly. For example，nanometer technology may result in a very tiny machine or chip occupying a place in the sensory area of your brain, which may produce a virtual reality effect so that it is hard for you to distinguish between the real and the simulated. The best food you have eaten may be enjoyed repeatedly in the company of different people；Going to Fuji Mountain or visiting Louvre will become meaningless. The intracerebral emulational means can do or sense anything people can do or sense: You can become a knight of the Dark Ages for a while, or change into a chivalrous swordsman of ancient China in Jin Yong’s novels for another while, or turn into a princess in the Castle of Beauty for some time, or have a taste of the feeling of being a world plutocrat… Such pleasures are unimaginable even to the kings of ancient times.
—- More and more people will use the broadband to “order” amusement
According to a survey，in families with broadband Internet, their average consumption in amusement is far higher than those without broadband. One of the five major public accounting firms of the world, Ernest & Young did a global survey covering 128 CEOs of large multinational companies, such as Norkia, Timewarner, SONY, American AT＆T and so on. The result shows that most of the CEOs, namely three fifths of them, believe “The broadband will change people’s amusement experience”. More and more people will use the broadband technology to “order” amusement：Nowadays, by dial-up access, you can download only 1/10 of a song in one minute. In future, in one minute you can download 300 songs；In the near future, one hard disk can store all the songs in the 150,000 CDs released in the times. In 2000, the global capital investment in broadband amounted to 100 billion US dollars. All the movies，teleplays, novels and albums of paintings stored in storehouses in the past may be digitized and put onto the broadband network, for you to choose any time, which will certainly be a huge profitable business opportunity.
—- Using high technology to work out amusing devices and amusing agents
Do you still remember that experiment with a mouse? After the scientists found the pleasure centrum in the mouse, they designed a lever: Each time the mouse jammed on the lever, it would stimulate the mouse’ pleasure centrum, so the mouse felt extremely happy, so, the little animal was very fond of jamming on it and never gave up even until tired to death. The mouse has a pleasure centrum，so does a man. Through in-depth research on human pleasure centrum, it will not be hard to work out a device or drug that can make people feel extremely happy. Of course, we should ensure no side effect will come out when bringing pleasure to people. Once such a product is worked out, its market profit will be too great to estimate.
In the 20th century，invention of the contraceptive and condom smashed the shackles on females, and freed mankind from endless worry and anguish. If there had been contraceptives in Marx’ times, he would not have said “For a person with a great aspiration, there is nothing more foolish than marriage.” Marx had six children，and three of them died because of abject poverty! The death of each child was a heart-breaking pain and a heavy blow! Had there been contraceptives，Marx’ would have been much happier, and so would have his wife Jenny! The pleasure such a tiny pill has brought to mankind, especially females, is beyond estimation，and of course, it has also brought about huge economic interests to its inventor and producers. Once a device or pill able to bring extreme pleasure to people is worked out, its impact on mankind will be even greater, and at the same time it will bring economic benefit beyond comparison.
In conclusion，the overall and in-depth participation of high technology is the great difference of the ecstasy industry from the traditional amusement industry.
The ecstasy industry has another great feature：It not only stresses the “quantity” of joy，but also emphasizes the “quality” of it. The ecstasy industry is to help people get pleasure anytime, anywhere and in any case, not only the momentary pleasure from playing electronic games or watching digital films；The ecstasy industry will also help people to get a more profound and higher pleasure of the soul, the pleasure of self-realization, instead of a superficial, low-leveled sensual pleasure. The ecstasy industry lays special stress on the time effect of pleasure, not only considering the present, but also caring about the medium-term and long-term effect，that is, considering the negative effect of the present consumption on the future, and considering the general effect of the whole process.
We should not vulgarize pleasure, thinking only watching TV, seeing a movie, playing games, visiting friends or relatives, eating and drinking, or window-shopping is pleasure，but should also see that we must seek the pleasure in learning, the pleasure in creation, the pleasure in success, the pleasure in self-realization and so on. Maslow’s theory of need hierarchy has also shown that the highest pleasure of mankind is the pleasure in self-realization, and self-realization tends towards the “peak experience” most easily. Man’s demand for seeking spiritual satisfaction and self-realization is limitless, which has also opened up boundless possibilities for economical development.
In our life，study and work take up the primary position after all. Now most people’s study and work cannot be said to be joyful，even most of them are crying to heavens. “If work is a pleasure, life will be a paradise! If work is an obligation, life will be a hell!”(Goethe) When we judge according to this saying, I’m afraid that many people are still living in an abyss of suffering.
The ecstasy industry is just to help us turn both work and study into pleasures，making everything in life full of pleasure. Work will becomes man’s primary necessity，and he will not just work for making a living, but work for his own pleasure, for his self-realization. Through the use of many kinds of high and new technology, our future work will become full of fun and fascination. It needs one to go all out，just as a child plays games: When he spares no efforts, he will get the greatest fun. Competition, risking, imitation and all kinds of interesting jobs are just like gaming, and it will be just the essence of future work.
The ecstasy industry should also make our study full of fun. On the one hand, reform human gene; on the one hand, use high technology to reform education. A brand-new amusement-styled study will replace the present infusion-typed education，and children will learn many fresh things from their environment in a very free state. The essence of amusement is infatuation. When someone is madly infatuated in something, this thing must be very attractive. As this is the case, why not use high and new technology to turn learning into a way of amusement so that children can become infatuated in it? Moreover，a joyful learning does not tend towards fatigue and repulsion easily, and one can enhance his thinking and raise his quality in spite of himself at ease…
Elysium is mankind’s greatest ideal. The high development of the ecstasy industry and pleasure economy may contribute most directly to the build-up of Elysium. But the build-up of Elysium is a complicated system engineering. To let everyone get the utmost pleasure, we must consider scores of social factors such as educational level, health index, environmental protection, traffic, equality, democracy, political stability and so on. Only when our society has become an ecstasy society can we get the real utmost pleasure. Just seeing movies，playing games，and letting everyone have plentiful money, cannot be called “utmost pleasure” yet. If there is no progress in our environmental protection, we cannot breathe a fresh air and cannot see a blue sky, we will not feel happy. If our society is full of evil, people have no sense of security，and malfeasants often set up our bristles, we will not feel pleasure, either. Some wrong concepts, ethics or morals may also impede our pleasure. For instance，Chinese ancients thought “One woman should never make love with two men”, “Even if you starve to death, never lose your chastity” are moral virtues, and they absolutized such a moral, which caused a surprising loss to Chinese females’ pleasure for quite a long time.
The high progress of the whole society and the fast development of the productive power are the basic keystones for building up the Elysium and letting everyone live in a paradise.
In the future society, we shall have a full automation，such as production automation，office automation and home automation，leaving us more leisure time for our free disposal, so that we may do self-satisfaction and self-realization, even can “Go fishing for two days and dry the nets for three” (Chinese proverb, meaning working in a leisurely manner). After realization of production automation，we can work at home and everyone may become a SOHO, without the need to read the boss’ faces or crowd ourselves in the bus. We shall have more free time to stay with our family. Housework automation can liberate women greatly, adding a lot of time for pleasure and enjoyment. The invention of the washing machine has made a great contribution to the emancipation of women all over the world from the onerous house work. Not long ago, mothers had to struggle around the cooking stove, splitting firewood, burning coal, with their nostrils filled with black smoke. After having the gas burner, they were greatly liberated. From now on，all boring family chores, such as cooking, clothes washing and so on will be trusted to the robot, hence, we shall be able to hold our youth and retain our pleasure. Engels had a famous saying: “Women’ emancipation is a natural yardstick of social emancipation”. Likewise，women’s pleasure is also a natural yardstick for judging the happiness of the society. High technology should be women’s friend，and all weak persons’ friend；High technology should bring liberation and pleasure to the disadvantageous group.
To build an Elysium，we must rely on the over-speed development of the whole world’s economy and the magical revolution of productive power. The key to the advent of the Elysium as early as possible lies in boosting the mushroom growth of the pleasure economy and the ecstasy industry. We should carry out amusement education and ecstasy education，cultivate amusement personnel and ecstasy personnel (high-quality personnel who are able to use high technology to increase pleasure for people), and always turn out new concepts, new ideas, new inventions and new techniques for the products and services of pleasure economy and ecstasy industry. Meanwhile，the government and the society should offer a correct public opinion orientation, a good policy support, especially doing strategic thinking and long-term planning for pleasure economy and ecstasy industry. So long as we do so，a human paradise or Elysium will appear before long.