I think about this exact topic a lot and I think you are mostly right, but I also think that open source replicators would be an agent of change, especially if one could be used to manufacture parts to make another. Of course, without land to make things on conflicts will arise. But once the need for money is removed some people will choose to “opt out” of society and start building a parallel one similar to how the open source community exists alongside closed source software.
Comment on Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek: It has lessons for today's techno-optimists
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Agreed that hope is Defiant (pun intended), but disagree with assertion that replicators are the backbone of post-scarcity (yes I know it’s a work of fiction by many writers, but hear me out).
Under capitalism the invention of replicators would just lead to the introduction of artificial scarcity, in order to maintain the current power structures. We know this because everywhere in the world already exists the technology for all to have plenty, yet somehow these obvious needs aren’t met.
In a nutshell: tech won’t save us.
bigfoot@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I don’t know, we already have open source 3D printers and they really haven’t brought about the industrial revolution some people hoped. Not quite the same as replicators, granted!
concrete_baby@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I had the same thought when NFTs became popular, but no longer. NFTs are artificial scarcity, since they have no inherent value and the uniqueness of each should therefore hold no inherent value. But the hype’s gone now. Nobody cares about NFTs because everyone knows their value is artificial. I think that is what’s gonna happen when replicators are invented. There will be brief periods of hype to create artificial scarcity, but they will pass.
xyguy@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Theres a whole alien race, The Ferengi, that are obsessed with something called latinum and getting as much as possible because it can’t be replicated. Other than that, it has no other useful purpose. You could replicate anything you want for free or ypu could get some platinum and go to a Ferengi bar and pay someone else to replicate it for you.
So basically yeah, Ferengi are also post-scarcity but since they are the capitalist caricatures of the show they have random substance xyz so they can still have a reason for rich and poor to exist.
bigfoot@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
“Money as a vestigial cultural relic” is a great concept. You’re right, Latinum doesn’t provide the Ferengi with anything but status.