Zeigeist Addendum: Voluntaryist technology backed communism?

[memenode]

One thing that might always remain scarce is energy. Replicators and holodecks requre energy to work. Even in Star Trek their ships constantly need to replenish their supply of energy source materials such as those famous dilithium crystals. It's just that since they tend to be explorers and can easily get to so many places in the galaxy they also seem to have no trouble founding energy sources and therefore scarcity isn't really felt so much..

Still, I think that so long as there is such a thing as human values there will be trade. Even if anything physical in the universe that you can imagine you can just replicate out of an endless pile of raw materials, you may still be capable of loving someone's company, of appreciating someone's ingenuity, creativity and so on. The fact that people evolve means that there will always be a new frontier to explore, something new to create and so on. And this stuff is always going to be precious.

In other words, the services market will always exist, where it's people actually doing something for other people, even if it's only developing ideas, making tech work or entertaining each other.

[John Edward Mercier]

There isn't a scarcity of energy in the universe. Though the First Law of Thermodynamics may some day be proven incomplete (sort of like Newtonian physics), its our technology that has the limitations.

[memenode]

Good point.

So that means our tech can really be developed to the point at which no actual physical scarcity exists.

Still, the services market I think will remain. Even if we were all as powerful as Q, we still communicate and act and what we have to say or do may be what another values, and where there is value there can be a market.

[John Edward Mercier]

True. In the Newtonian example, Newton didn't sell his ideas in a capitalistic sense... but he did acquire recognition, which has value on some level.

[J’raxis 270145]

One thing that might always remain scarce is energy. ...

O RLY.



Good for the next 4–5 billion years or so, at least.

[memenode]

One thing that might always remain scarce is energy. ...

O RLY.



Good for the next 4–5 billion years or so, at least.

Good point. And beautiful too.