Difference between revisions of "Post-scarcity/More post-scarcity thinking"

Revision as of 02:05, 10 March 2012

These links point to more post-scarcity thinking that may be interesting or useful, however please note this does not mean that AdCiv advocates all things said by these individuals!

• Buckminster Fuller  - Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI.org). Visionary designer and engineer. The Buckminster Fuller Institute runs the Buckminster Fuller challenge, an annual contest to find a practical idea to change the world for the better using good design. A $100,000 grant is given to the winner. The Index of entries is a fascinating testament to human ingenuity and altruism.

“It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a 'higher standard of living than any have ever known.' It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary and henceforth unrationalizable as mandated by survival.”

• Jacque Fresco  - The Venus Project. Visionary designer and futurist. See also his book The Best That Money Can't Buy and the documentary film about Jacque, Future by Design. He advocates a 'Resource-based economy'.

“At the beginning of World War II the U.S. had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was No, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources. It was the available resources that enabled the US to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately this is only considered in times of war.”

• Eric Drexler  - Author of Engines of Creation (2007 update here) and prophet of molecular nanotechnology. He describes molecular assemblers  as "engines of abundance".
  (Interestingly advanced molecular nanotechnology is not actually required for an advanced post-scarcity society — which can be based on macro-scale technology that exists already. However it would likely provide unprecedented control over matter and currently unobtainable abilities in the fields of engineering, agriculture and medicine to name just three)

• John McCarthy  - Prominent computer scientist. He has some interesting information on his website about the sustainability of human progress.

• Robert Anton Wilson  - Eminent futurist, comedian, novelist and Discordian Pope. He covers the topic of post-scarcity in his essays Right Where You Are Sitting Now and The RICH Economy.

• Julian L. Simon  - A cornucopian  economist who wrote The Ultimate Resource, a book arguing that the power of human intelligence to overcome scarcity far outweighs any seeming scarcity of resources.

  “"We now have in our hands — really, in our libraries — the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next seven billion years."”

• Marshall Brain  - the 'Australia project' in the story of Manna. Marshall is the founder of HowStuffWorks.com

• Marshall T. Savage - Author of The Millenial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in eight easy steps. Many abundance concepts are covered using known technology in this interesting take on the steps required to feasibly colonise space
• Robert Levin  - Agalmics, an essay on the marginalization of scarcity

• Homebrew Industrial Revolution — a savage critique of monetary economics and a roadmap to post-scarcity through distributed manufacturing.

• Post-scarcity Princeton a general essay on post-scarcity by Paul D. Fernhout

• Peter Diamandis  - TED talk on abundance - he's obviously been reading AdCiv :)

Etc.