Post-scarcity/The means for a post-scarcity society

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

Civilisation 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.

Specifically, using currently existing technology...

• We can provide abundant clean water for everyone on Earth.
• We can produce enough food to feed at least 80 billion people without harming the environment
• We can meet our energy needs at least ten times over using clean, renewable energy
• We can build cheap, high-quality houses in a day or two, providing shelter for the billion people currently living in slums
• We can build technology of any complexity from free open-source designs and digitally fabricate them for the price of raw materials. ( And these raw materials are abundant.) With every year that goes by, the methods of fabrication become more decentralized (see: Fab Labs) and the open-source designs become better, making this a more attractive option.
• We can spread cheap, mobile Internet access to everyone on Earth, allowing them to connect to the world's informational and educational resources.
• We can make free educational materials available on the Internet, providing free education of unprecedented quality to everyone on Earth
• We can organize the World's medical knowledge, so that people have access to the highest-quality medical information and advice at all times.

How do we create an infrastructure advanced enough to provide all of this? See the open collaborative design and advanced automation pages.