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>For example, is there an alt-earth in an alt-universe with no mobile phones, but also no poverty? Probably not. A society with no poverty would be so much mo
by eli_gottlieb 9y ago
>For example, is there an alt-earth in an alt-universe with no mobile phones, but also no poverty?
Probably not. A society with no poverty would be so much more productive than ours that it would invent fun things like mobile phones pretty quickly.
- chiefalchemist 9y agoPerhaps you're right. Mine was a hypothetical about priorities, as well as some social commentary. That is, the more we look down at our shiny objects and drool, the less likely we are to see how a handheld mobile device is relatively low hanging fruit. Perhaps just correlation / coincidence but adoption of modern technology tracks well with the loss of the middle class, at least in the USA. Yes, a stretch. I'm not going to the mat for this idea. Just a simple observation; worth pondering?
- eli_gottlieb 9y agoI agree with you, but in the end, I think that pitting an imagined austere but socially developed society against our actual supposedly-profligate but socially underdeveloped society misses reality to repeat a myth: the myth of decadence. This myth lets people pretend society is too productive and too good at meeting needs, leaving nothing but petty status disputes, covering up the reality of a society that's running dramatically below peak efficiency precisely because it doggedly dedicates so much of its resource base to status disputes.