Main Page/Post-scarcity

The post-scarcity age is an anticipated era where due to advanced automated technology, efficient use of natural resources and co-operation a great abundance of the material items, goods and services that a global population needs could be created, achieved with minimal harm to the environment.

It is likely that people who are used to a world of seeming unlimited abundance will not be as obsessed with material possessions as a lot of people in developed nations seem to be today, meaning it could be a post-materialist era also. It is hard to see that while sitting in the middle of the current consumer culture. This is a debatable point however and not everyone might agree, but even if people's taste for goods didn't subside, old goods in the future should easily and efficiently be recycled into new.

It has been promised for decades but the technology and culture to enable a true era of abundance really is emerging that could free people from working in jobs they have no particular interest in doing except for the wage that it gives. People could be free to pursue what interests them and allow more time to be with the people who are important to them. This is vital in restoring genuine communities and all the richness and support that gives to those living within it. Free to learn and free to teach others.

This does admittedly sound naively idealistic, but the enabling technologies and frameworks that could allow this to happen need to be understood in order for this to make any sense...