I think Iain M Banks tries to answer the question: in a hypothetical future where all our material needs are met, where does that leave society? Do people still

I think Iain M Banks tries to answer the question: in a hypothetical future where all our material needs are met, where does that leave society? Do people still do stuff if they don't need money and why? Who runs it? Etc. Its sort of an optimistic exploration of post-scarcity anarchism. It remindsme a bit of how internet communities work. I think it takes its premise much more seriously than star trek does. E.g. Star trek has free replicators for everyone and yet everyone is spending tons of money at Quark's for some reason. Which is fine, star trek has a lot of other good qualities, but i don't think it does a great job of exploring the implication of its technologies.