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> If Star Trek Replicators were invented today, we're so stupid we'd outlaw them. You're so optimistic to think the law would even be this fair. More like limi
by deaddodo 2y ago
> If Star Trek Replicators were invented today, we're so stupid we'd outlaw them.
You're so optimistic to think the law would even be this fair. More like limit access to corporations as "the only custodians responsible enough to wield them", while still allowing the developing world to starve and further increasing their profit margins simultaneously to decreasing working wages and employment levels.
- TaylorAlexander 2y agoHah some Ferengi actually did this in an episode of TNG! They showed up on a random planet with a replicator and then used their ability to produce anything as a means to subjugate the population.
- adrianN 2y agoI believe that was Voyager and the Ferengi were stranded in the delta quadrant after the incident with the stable-on-one-end wormhole in TNG. Imo it wasn’t the worst strategy in their situation. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/False_Profits_(episode) https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/False_Profits_(episode)
- TaylorAlexander 2y agoOooh you’re so right thank you!
- bongobingo1 2y agoFun episode title.
- WalterBright 2y agoA script writer can make any fantasy appear to be workable.
- WalterBright 2y agoYou cannot make money off of people who are starving.
- eat_veggies 2y agoYou can force starving people into unfair arrangements where the choice is between getting screwed or dying of hunger. You can use the existence of starving people as a threat to keep your work force in line. Sometimes it's not even the starving people that you're making money off of, but their minerals and land. There are a lot of ways to profit from suffering. And sometimes it's not even about profit—it can just feel so good to have an Other to oppress.
- WalterBright 2y ago> You can force starving people into unfair arrangements where the choice is between getting screwed or dying of hunger. History shows us that if you want to force starving people to work for you, you also need to shoot the people who refuse. See the Soviet gulags, and the Nazi slave labor camps.
- eat_veggies 2y agoIndeed the arrangement is violent and enforced with terrible violence, and in no way is this incompatible with profits.
- WalterBright 2y ago[flagged]
- mandmandam 2y agoHow does this account keep managing to make every thread on HN into 'communism bad' without getting flagged? Tell me your secrets Walter.