4 ms·

...If we build framework to support such an economy, it may be possible.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
That's the crux of the issue. It seems that the current economy will rather drive itself to the ground, taking all of humanity with it, rather than transitioning itself to a different value system. It looks like the post-scarcity world is not on the phase-space trajectory we're currently following.
- nosuchthing 12y ago
  On a macro scale it's momentum and incentives at play. Daunting, but malleable. Locally, we're close to achieving sensible cities/communities with renewable energy, easier access to rapid prototyping, and worker co-op business models. Do what you can with what you have to make your city and friends have access to healthy enjoyable lives.
  - pavedwalden 12y ago
    From where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like we're remotely close. Renewable energy and effective urban planning are not at all common, and worker co-op business models are quite rare. I like your vision of the future, but I don't see much evidence that we're headed there.
- willholloway 12y ago
  Right now I feel every reason to be gratuitously optimistic. - Solar photo-voltaic is or is about to be the cheapest form of electricity, we will solve the storage problem - Electric cars are getting closer to the tipping point, and they are going to drive themselves - Biotech is making incredible gains, see cancer immunotherapy or NSI-189 - The pace of technological innovation has accelerated and continues - The intellectual capital of the human race has never been anywhere near this large, free, accessible - Robots/a lot of weak AI is or is about to get to a point to change the game
  - cauterized 12y ago
    We're on trajectory technologically but not sociologically.
    - nosuchthing 12y ago
      "We eat in restaurants, buy branded toiletries, build skyscrapers, create legislative institutions, travel in flying machines, write poetry, and search for meaning in relationships, temples, and scientific books. Humans have discovered antibiotics, sent probes into space, decimated rainforests, shared a billion views of clips of kitten behaviour, and decoded their own genomes. But there is one thing that humans have singularly failed to do, and that is to properly understand their own behaviour. " — Robert Aunger and Valerie Curtis: Gaining Control: How human behavior evolved [0] https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gaining-control-9780199688951?cc=us&lang=en& https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gaining-control-9780...
- ArkyBeagle 12y ago
  It's hubris to say this, but we're not as far off as you might think. If "they" can fix economics ( big if ) that alone would make a big difference. But the US only got off the gold standard in my lifetime. There's a Churchill quote about Americans; I think it generalizes to humans - "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities."

That's the crux of the issue. It seems that the current economy will rather drive itself to the ground, taking all of humanity with it, rather than transitioning itself to a different value system. It looks like the post-scarcity world is not on the phase-space trajectory we're currently following.

nosuchthing 12y ago
On a macro scale it's momentum and incentives at play. Daunting, but malleable. Locally, we're close to achieving sensible cities/communities with renewable energy, easier access to rapid prototyping, and worker co-op business models. Do what you can with what you have to make your city and friends have access to healthy enjoyable lives.
- pavedwalden 12y ago
  From where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like we're remotely close. Renewable energy and effective urban planning are not at all common, and worker co-op business models are quite rare. I like your vision of the future, but I don't see much evidence that we're headed there.
willholloway 12y ago
Right now I feel every reason to be gratuitously optimistic. - Solar photo-voltaic is or is about to be the cheapest form of electricity, we will solve the storage problem - Electric cars are getting closer to the tipping point, and they are going to drive themselves - Biotech is making incredible gains, see cancer immunotherapy or NSI-189 - The pace of technological innovation has accelerated and continues - The intellectual capital of the human race has never been anywhere near this large, free, accessible - Robots/a lot of weak AI is or is about to get to a point to change the game
- cauterized 12y ago
  We're on trajectory technologically but not sociologically.
  - nosuchthing 12y ago
    "We eat in restaurants, buy branded toiletries, build skyscrapers, create legislative institutions, travel in flying machines, write poetry, and search for meaning in relationships, temples, and scientific books. Humans have discovered antibiotics, sent probes into space, decimated rainforests, shared a billion views of clips of kitten behaviour, and decoded their own genomes. But there is one thing that humans have singularly failed to do, and that is to properly understand their own behaviour. " — Robert Aunger and Valerie Curtis: Gaining Control: How human behavior evolved [0] https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gaining-control-9780199688951?cc=us&lang=en& https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gaining-control-9780...
ArkyBeagle 12y ago
It's hubris to say this, but we're not as far off as you might think. If "they" can fix economics ( big if ) that alone would make a big difference. But the US only got off the gold standard in my lifetime. There's a Churchill quote about Americans; I think it generalizes to humans - "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities."