Jamais Cascio always has interesting stuff to say, but this time he's outdone himself.
His latest blog entry contains a well-crafted raft of ideas on scarcity in a post-nanofactory world, combined with real-life suggestions for exploring the issue today (really!).
The post, and its comments, are so much worth reading that I hesitate to give away any of the ideas here. But I can't help mentioning one very interesting observation: in online multiplayer games, the games without scarcity tend to lose players. What does that say about psychology? If the needs of life were all provided for free, would we all just sit around and breathe? Lie around and breed? Invent new things to compete for? The amount of TV that's watched in the US today may give some indication.
Seriously--go and read the article. It's one of the most insightful pieces I've seen on molecular manufacturing recently.
Chris
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog
"The amount of TV that's watched in the US today may give some indication."
The reason why people watch TV so much is not because resources are easy to come by. Resources are NOT easy to come by in today's society. We work hard for them and hardly ever pay off our mortgage. Slave-wagery takes up your entire life and provides just enough money so that you can keep yourself alive and in debt to the system for your entire life.
That makes people tired. And that's why they watch TV when they get home. It's their only escape.
If you're looking for more insights, read one of my recent posts:
http://jwbats.blogspot.com/2006/08/shorter-4-6-hour-workdays-would.html
Posted by: Jan-Willem Bats | September 14, 2006 at 02:29 AM
TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/gk4o7
Posted by: Jan-Willem Bats | September 14, 2006 at 02:30 AM
Look at the converse: what the hell is the point of all this progress if at some point in time the necessities of life aren't provided for free? Really think more scientific papers will be outputed by a population of (uneducated) wage slaves vs a population of (highly educated) silver spoons?!
There are Arab oil-rich states where this already occurs. People are happy and educated but output fewer scientific papers per capita.
There is a great deal of confusion towards what constitutes necessities of life in the above blog entry. It is suggested TV and cable are necessities? Make some "value added" (TV) necessities of life contingent upon x number of years of education, but always give away shelter, food, and water post-MNT. The USSR is dead, there is no need to continue neo-conservative economic policies post-MNT. Productivity gains won't be an issue of primacy post-MNT. There will be a real need for educated minds but that won't happen if the post-MNT workforce consists of Walmart people greeters and Chinese textile workers and cement construction workers.
Posted by: Phillip Huggan | September 14, 2006 at 12:21 PM