Difference between revisions of "Post-scarcity"

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

Many fictional visions of post scarcity involve as yet undeveloped technologies and unproven theories but it is interesting to note that material abundance can be produced with existing technologies. Food is one example, where there is more than enough for everyone on the planet, but it is logistics, politics and economics that prevents a more egalitarian distribution. There exists far more energy, raw material and biological resources on Earth than humanity requires, it is a matter of developing systems that use and distribute them more efficiently.

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

The simplest analogy is that of a vast jungle providing fruit in abundance for anyone to eat. But in this scenario the jungle is highly autonomous distributed machinery that has been openly designed.

Abundance of the fundamental resources

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

Civilization boils down to four fundamentals: 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.

What does this mean for people and society?

It means all the things that should happen, can happen; of course this is not the same as will happen, but makes it more probable. Not only providing everyone with the basic necessities for a decent life but giving maximum opportunity for people and societies to live and prosper how they might like to. Potentially enabling equal opportunities to all.

This means different things to different people. For some it enables a life enhanced by advanced technology, able to do new things they have never been able to before, and for others it means almost the exact opposite - allowing them to lead a more basic rural life perhaps with a smallholding, more in touch with nature and older ways of living. But they can they can do this without worrying about a bad year in terms of yield from the land or medical care because of the advanced infrastructure in the background that they can call upon if required.

It means we can have enough time to think about the really important things and do them properly.

People will not have to suffer drudgery during the best years of their lives. Unfortunately a large proportion of people today in both white and blue collar jobs would really rather be doing something else other what they are employed to do all day. They feel perhaps that what they are doing is not directly relevant to their lives, they are simply a cog with little control in a larger machine. They have to do it to afford food, shelter and some spending money. A post-scarcity society enables them to have the time and space to work on things that are important to them, and to learn the skills needed to reach their goals and have room to be more creative.

One scarce resource today for people is time. In a post-scarce culture, not having to spend the best part of the day and the best part of their lives doing something they would perhaps not otherwise want to do, also frees people up to spend more time with each other - something that is vital for a proper community.

See also

• Scarcity