Difference between revisions of "Post-scarcity"

Revision as of 11:10, 20 January 2006

The post-scarcity age is an anticipated period where due to advancing technology and efficient use of natural resources there will be a great abundance of the material items and services that people require, achieved with a minimal impact to the environment. It will not matter where you live.

When civilization reaches this point, everything from basics like clean water, nutritious food, medicine and suitable housing to less essential material goods like vehicles, computers, mobile phones and all the way up to purely luxury items, will be freely available to anyone that require them.

The simplest analogy is that of a vast jungle producing abundant fruit for anyone to eat. But in this instance the jungle is highly autonomous distributed machinery designed to make all that we require.

Abundance of the fundamental resources

Do we really have the resources for this kind of society?

Civilization boils down to four fundementals: material, energy, information and intelligence – none of which are in short supply. It is the current inefficient methods of use (and re-use) and perceived economic restrictions that make it appear that there are significant limitations to these resources.

See the fundamental resources page for more information on resource availability.

How do we design machinery advanced enough to give us all of this?

See the open design and closed-loop automation pages.

Further info

• Benefits to society of overcoming scarcity