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Even if that's the case, is that a bad thing? Should we not have the freedom to spend our own time as we please in a post-scarcity society?
by JDiculous 10y ago
Even if that's the case, is that a bad thing? Should we not have the freedom to spend our own time as we please in a post-scarcity society?
- brightball 10y agoI keep hearing that term lately...but nobody can explain to me how post scarcity is even possible
- lovich 10y agoWe already have classes of goods/services that are post scarcity. Music for instance is post scarcity in that it costs effectively nothing to reproduce. Before anyone argues creation of _new_ music is not post scarcity. Anyway as manufacturing techniques improve more item will become post scarcity or effectively so if we can provide all the demand for an item for little to no cost.
- smaddox 10y agoIt's not. At least, not as long as the "passion between the sexes" remains unbalanced by birth control. Even if it does become balanced, there are finite resources.
- anonemouse145 10y agoRead Heinlein's For Us The Living. Robots make all essential goods, and everyone has a minimum basic income. People only work to get extra income for nice things. That is a societal wide post scarcity society- no one who desires a basic living will ever lack anything they need. But post scarcity happens all the time. It used to be the domain of nobles, who had easy access to basically anything they could desire. Now it belongs to middle to upper class first world residents, a growing class of people who can lean on mommy if they ever get in trouble and who generally are never more than an Amazon Prime delivery away from any good or service they need. People will say oh but a feudal lord didn't have an iPhone it's all relative. And sure that's one argument, but I'm sure you can see the point being made. You can work a lousy job, and play video games, eat pizza, and be basically happy. Or you can take on tens of thousands in student debt to work a much more stressful job, and wish you had enough time to play games, and stop eating pizza because it doesn't fit your lifestyle. A growing number of people can't rationalize the latter option. There's no need to endure that hardship, goods aren't that scarce. Hence, people bring up post scarcity.
- vedranm 10y agoIt's not possible; human desires are infinite for all practical purposes and physical matter is inherently scarce. Have a great house? A car? A plane? Great... now, how about a spaceship?
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoWell, its about marketing. Used to be we dreamed of flying cars and going to Mars (1950's science fiction). Jobs got us programmed to anticipate a little more RAM, a bigger screen and more colorful icons. Just dumb down the consumerism and there you are.
- vedranm 10y agoI would say, with rise of SpaceX, some of us dream of those things again. Comments like this on HN make me think there are more of use than we think: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13706116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13706116
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoIts about basic human necessities, not some hunkydoodle future where everything is infinite for everybody. So, food clothing shelter and maybe entertainment. Hey! We're already there - those things take a tiny fraction of the population to produce for everybody. Mostly automated from start to finish.
- JDiculous 10y agoLike JoeAltmaier said, I was referring to just basic needs being met (eg. shelter, food, internet connection). Obviously we'll never reach a point where everyone can have whatever they want. If there's a better term than "post-scarcity", would love to hear it.
- dragonwriter 10y ago"Basic needs" is a concept with expands with prosperity.