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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday July 12 2015, @11:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the eject-the-core dept.

Anna North writes in the NY Times about Star Trek's "post-economic" system, in which money no longer exists and anything you want can be made in a replicator, essentially for free. According to Manu Saadia, the author of "Trekonomics," a forthcoming book about the economics of the Star Trek universe, when everything is free, objects will no longer be status symbols. Success will be measured in achievements, not in money: "Instead of working to become more wealthy, you work to increase your reputation," says Saadia. "You work to increase your prestige. You want to be the best captain or the best scientist in the entire galaxy. And many other people are working to do that, as well. It's very meritocratic"

In a time of rising inequality and stagnating wages, a world where everyone's needs are met and people only work if they feel like it seems pretty far away but a post-scarcity economy is actually far more within reach than the technological advances for which Star Trek is better known. If productivity growth continues, Saadia believes there will be much more wealth to go around in a few hundred years' time. In general, society might look more like present-day New Zealand, which he sees as less work-obsessed than the United States: "You work to live rather than the other way round." Wealthy retirees today also already live an essentially post-money existence, "traveling and exploring and deepening their understanding of the world and being generally happy." According to Saadia we're beginning to get a few hints of what the post-money, reputation-based economy might look like. "If you look at things like Instagram, Vine, places where people put a huge amount of work into basically just gaining a certain amount of reputation, it's fascinating to see. Or even Wikipedia, for that matter. The Internet has begun to give us a hint of how much people will work, for no money, just for reputation."


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gravis on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:05PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:05PM (#208173)

    you laugh because you lack the creativity to imagine a future that isn't based on greed. you laugh because you are consumed by greed. people like you fear the loss of a centralized power structure.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Jesus_666 on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:58PM

    by Jesus_666 (3044) on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:58PM (#208194)
    ...or they're just too jaded to see this as ever happening. To be honest, I also think it's unlikely – people with power want to retain that power and wealth is the current way power is measured. We'd have to find an entirely new way of defining who has more power than whom if we were to go to a post-wealth society.

    And yes, there would be people with substantially more power than other people. They won't let go unless forced and nobody is forcing them.


    I think that the most likely way this ends is through legally mandated hardware DRM in all devices capable of making things and harsh sentences for people who attempt to circumvent them. The laws would be pushed through by pointing out that if people can have anything manufactured there's nothing to keep the terrorists from making guns at home. Boom, now your DRM circumvention or unlicensed 3D printer can be prosecuted under antiterrorism law. And most people won't mind buying approved template files from known vendors.


    It's not that I can't imagine a different future. I just don't think it's particularly likely without a major and sudden change in society and a complete dismantling of current power structures. Note that even Star Trek couldn't give us a bright, post-monetary future without first invoking global thermonuclear war. In fact, even that wouldn't have sufficed without first contact happening.
    • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday July 12 2015, @07:18PM

      by Gravis (4596) on Sunday July 12 2015, @07:18PM (#208218)

      ...or they're just too jaded to see this as ever happening.

      actually, I've talked to "The Mighty Buzzard" previously about this very issue and he genuinely lacks the ability to conceive of a society that doesn't have greed as it's central tenant. he even went so far as to refer to the idea of all information being public domain as "fascism".

      I just don't think it's particularly likely without a major and sudden change in society and a complete dismantling of current power structures.

      i think a new nation will be founded on the principles of post-wealth which resolves those issues. it would likely start inside another country in a sparsely populated area and then rapidly populate. after a certain level of growth while maintaining total autonomy, a formal declaration of independence could be made. generally soldiers aren't keen on killing peaceful people but how the parent state reacts is a trivial matter because the groundwork will have been laid out for other groups of people in countries around the world to replicate the process.