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Star Trek economics are just plain bull shit, any society who has the ability to create food or other items by the expenditure of only energy has no need of muc
by Shivetya 12y ago
Star Trek economics are just plain bull shit, any society who has the ability to create food or other items by the expenditure of only energy has no need of much else. I remember a quote, if a race could materialize star ships they would not need too and this is where Star Trek's future always struck me wrong, where is the limit to replicators?
As to the point of are were on a post scarcity economy, well we might be in some Western cultures but it does indicate quite clearly that given nothing to do far too many people will excel at it, worse when they do do something it will be to eat. Society will need to adjust those who just take to find something to do with their time. It might not earn them money or much but they need an activity to avoid end up looking like an extra from Wall-e.
- MrBra 12y ago> if a race could materialize star ships they would not need too Sorry can you rephrase this please? I really can't get the sense of it.
- GotAnyMegadeth 12y agoIf a society was sufficiently advanced that they could just press a button and make a star ship at will, then they would probably be equally advanced in other areas and would not have any need for star ships.
- 3rd3 12y agoMaybe people are just too romantic and nostalgic to realize their wildest dreams with holo decks, telepresence, brain implants and let AIs decide on their well being. Maybe instead of spawning self-replicating robots for space exploration they want to do it physically themselves like their ancestors explored the continents a long time ago.
- tomjen3 12y agoA human level AI could kidnap you, put you into a simulation like that and you wouldn't know. Depending on what morality we put into the AIs it may choose to do so.
- Ygg2 12y agoThat's a non sequitur. A society advances on numerous axis, but doesn't necessarily advance at the same time. Society can be immoral and enough scientifically advanced to have such machines. I'm pretty sure Romulans in that universe had replicators and they were known for their black ops division.
- GotAnyMegadeth 12y agoGood point. Though I think that the suggestion was that the technology required to materialise a massive, warp capable star ship may be more advanced than a different technology that accomplishes the same tasks as a star ship. For example being able to teleport both people and nuclear weapons across the whole universe would pretty much render star ships obsolete.
- zo1 12y ago"where is the limit to replicators?" Well, replicators require energy to run. And that energy is created by using up a mined resource (Trilithium/Dilithium/or something). They unfortunately gloss over a lot of these issues in the show, for simplicity and entertainment. Unless it's part of a "plot device", then they make things scarce.
- spingsprong 12y agoReplicators can't replicate everything. Many episodes have had characters complaining about replicated food not tasting as good as the real thing. And many episodes have star ship crews trying to obtain Dilithium. So obviously some things aren't replicable, and many things that are replicable are only replicable at a lower quality.