For someone born in 4 BC, Lucius Annaeus Seneca certainly understood the difference between rivalrous goods of atoms and non-rivalrous goods of bits.<p>"There is a common saying that it was not in our power to
choose the parents we were allotted, and that they were given to us by chance; yet we can be born to whomever we wish. There are house-holds of the most distinguished intellects: choose the one into which you'd like to be adopted, and you'll inherit not just the name but also the actual property, which is not to be hoarded in a miserly or mean spirit: the more people you share it with, the greater it will become."