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Well, for a start, it's a post-scarcity society that has the capacity to produce 7 billion widgets if necessary. So that gets you around a lot of problems. You
by canadian_voter 10y ago
Well, for a start, it's a post-scarcity society that has the capacity to produce 7 billion widgets if necessary. So that gets you around a lot of problems.
You'll notice that the crew quarters in the show are decorated in a minimalist style. The only objects people keep are the ones that are important to them. Tools, games, gifts can be conjured as needed and recycled when you're done with them.
Scarce resources do exist, however, especially on a starship: crew quarters are probably not all of the same size, for example. Some people might have to walk a little further to the turbolift (elevator). These sorts of resource allocation problems are likely solved by either a lottery method or based on need. For example, if the Captain gets bigger quarters, it's not because she's the captain, it's because she might need the space to host visiting delegates, etc.
Although I suppose there are still some material inequalities based on rank. For example, ensigns get a single rank pip, while a captain gets four.
- flareback 10y agoUntil we learn how to create something out of nothing, there will be no post-scarcity world.
- blakeyrat 10y agoA post-scarcity economy is never going to be able to create more lake-front properties or more seats at the top pop star's front-row. (Although I suppose you could argue: VR. But I doubt people even 100 years from now will agree VR is just as good as the real thing.) When you think about it, there's a lot of stuff that'll still be scarce even when we have magic robots that can build everything instantly.
- canadian_voter 10y agoNot everyone can get what they want, but certainly everyone gets what they need. Everyone living in mansions? Nope. But is anybody homeless? Nope. It's a trade-off. Many sought-after things are scarce. Starship commissions are scarce. They require hard work and are assigned based on merit. Not just anyone gets the opportunity to explore the edge of space; it takes dedication and sacrifice. The show is certainly influence by the philosophy of Stoicism[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism
- Pica_soO 10y agoIf you want to keep capitalism in a post-scarcity society- all you need to do is counter the exponential production with exponential consumption- breed tribble-human hybrids.
- dragonwriter 10y agoThat's actually not keeping capitalism in a post-scarcity society, since the proposal relies on having existing (and artificially enhancing the existing) scarcity. If anything that anyone wants is limited such that enhancing one person's realized utility is a trade-off with someone else's realized utility, you don't have a post-scarcity situation. Which is why post-scarcity isn't really something we are ever likely to need to worry about. What we need to worry about is a scenario with scarcity where large masses of the public are (some in a static way, and some in a transitional way that, with optimal policy, could resolve given time), through arrangement of capital and the relative utility of automation vs. labor (including when it comes to producing additional automated production units) unable to contribute significantly to output, and thus have nothing to sell in the marketplace.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> A post-scarcity economy is never going to be able to create more lake-front properties or more seats at the top pop star's front-row. By the definition of economic scarcity it will be required to in order to merit the name. However, that illustrates that a post-scarcity society will never exist (or at least is vastly farther off than some people imagine), which is the more critical point.