In the last few months there has been a resurgence of post-capitalist chatter flying around the valley. John Battelle, for instance, posted a widely shared note about “the reinvention of capitalism” after technology. At the same time, there’s been a dinner-time revival of the old conversation about the inevitable need for a guaranteed basic income in the United States.

This flavor of conversation flares up when times are good and people are feeling confident about technology. This time around, there’s a mini-euphoria about the rapid recovery of the public market from what felt like a downturn at the beginning of the year. And several technologies seem to be on the cusp of providing real opportunity for economic growth, including virtual reality, live video, connected cars, voice-based-home automation, reusable rockets, CRISPR, and maybe bots.