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That's assuming that money is still an adequate motivator in a (word I just learned) post-scarcity world. Governments might be responsible for providing the raw

That's assuming that money is still an adequate motivator in a (word I just learned) post-scarcity world. Governments might be responsible for providing the raw materials?

bmelton 15y ago
Automatic printing of items doesn't create a post-scarcity world. The printing machines can only print from plans. People who create those plans may sell them, and those plans may be pirated, but there's still industry. There's still supply and demand. If nobody is compensated for the manufacture of the plans, you're either on your own to create them or perhaps they'll be donated. Given the state of charity in the world, one can assume that they won't be donated, but given the state of open source, one might assume that they will. Regardless, the plans aren't self-creating and/or limitless. Why would the governments supply the raw materials for you to purchase a car? If they aren't currently motivated to just buy you a car, why would they be suddenly motivated to pay for all the materials that go into a car's manufacture, even if the labor cost is reduced? If the materials were free, what's to stop everyone from printing out 20 different types of cars and luxury mansions?
jonhohle 15y ago
And who would mine, gather, process, prospect, and distribute the materials? What motivation would those individuals have? (Actually, I would love to see a candidate who was actively sinking a shovel every day to produce or driving a tractor trailer to deliver raw materials for her/his constituents.) Based on the current trend, however, I doubt we'd ever see a post scarcity world: oil, rare-earth metals, gold, silver, and even wood and stone are all scarce at scale. Sunlight may be one of the only things available on earth that humans can't destructively consume.
- firefoxman1 15y ago
  "I would love to see a candidate who was actively sinking a shovel every day to produce or driving a tractor trailer to deliver raw materials for her/his constituents." Haha, yeah that would definitely have to be done by robots. Robots certainly help move us to a post-scarcity world though, don't they?
  - derleth 15y ago
    > Robots certainly help move us to a post-scarcity world though, don't they? Anything that makes more stuff with fewer input resources (especially in terms of human time and effort) moves us closer to a post-scarcity world. Implicit in all of the treatments of a post-scarcity world I've ever seen, though, is the idea that humans will be only doing the jobs that only humans can do, such as acting, painting, programming, advanced mathematics, governing, and so on. Robots certainly help us move towards that.
- justincormack 15y ago
  Your candidate sounds rather like Mahatma Gandhi, with his 'swadeshi' policy of local self sufficiency, as exemplified by his weaving.

That's assuming that money is still an adequate motivator in a (word I just learned) post-scarcity world. Governments might be responsible for providing the raw materials?

bmelton 15y ago

Automatic printing of items doesn't create a post-scarcity world. The printing machines can only print from plans. People who create those plans may sell them, and those plans may be pirated, but there's still industry. There's still supply and demand. If nobody is compensated for the manufacture of the plans, you're either on your own to create them or perhaps they'll be donated. Given the state of charity in the world, one can assume that they won't be donated, but given the state of open source, one might assume that they will. Regardless, the plans aren't self-creating and/or limitless. Why would the governments supply the raw materials for you to purchase a car? If they aren't currently motivated to just buy you a car, why would they be suddenly motivated to pay for all the materials that go into a car's manufacture, even if the labor cost is reduced? If the materials were free, what's to stop everyone from printing out 20 different types of cars and luxury mansions?

jonhohle 15y ago

And who would mine, gather, process, prospect, and distribute the materials? What motivation would those individuals have? (Actually, I would love to see a candidate who was actively sinking a shovel every day to produce or driving a tractor trailer to deliver raw materials for her/his constituents.) Based on the current trend, however, I doubt we'd ever see a post scarcity world: oil, rare-earth metals, gold, silver, and even wood and stone are all scarce at scale. Sunlight may be one of the only things available on earth that humans can't destructively consume.

firefoxman1 15y ago
"I would love to see a candidate who was actively sinking a shovel every day to produce or driving a tractor trailer to deliver raw materials for her/his constituents." Haha, yeah that would definitely have to be done by robots. Robots certainly help move us to a post-scarcity world though, don't they?
- derleth 15y ago
  > Robots certainly help move us to a post-scarcity world though, don't they? Anything that makes more stuff with fewer input resources (especially in terms of human time and effort) moves us closer to a post-scarcity world. Implicit in all of the treatments of a post-scarcity world I've ever seen, though, is the idea that humans will be only doing the jobs that only humans can do, such as acting, painting, programming, advanced mathematics, governing, and so on. Robots certainly help us move towards that.
justincormack 15y ago
Your candidate sounds rather like Mahatma Gandhi, with his 'swadeshi' policy of local self sufficiency, as exemplified by his weaving.