Star Trek Future: Economics

[forsyth]

A post, over on Salon, called "The Utopian Economics of "Star Trek" lays out part of the foundation for a Star Trek future. The defining part of the Star Trek future, for me, is the optimism of it. Part of the optimism is Star Trek is a future largely without scarcity. Even before the replicators of TNG, most resources are easily available. The only limits are energy, and some rare elements, especially the dilithium, the handwavium that makes the nearly-limitless energy available. And once most things aren't scarce, current economics falls apart, as the cots of everything would approach 0.

Which, frankly, is not really that unreasonable, for a spacefaring civilization that's managed to spread beyond a single solar system. Think of the Kardashev scale. The Federation's obviously at least Type II.

To get to a Star Trek future, there's lots of problems to be solved, some technological, but just as many social, political, economic, and everything else. There's room for everybody to work to make a better world.

Comments

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

There are limits. Physical constraints by the laws of physics, and the available matter in the universe. And there will be limits imposed by laws, heck, look at the music and movie industries scrambling since the Internet made copies of files NOT something scarce. But that doesn't mean there need to be, or should be. If we impose limits to protect our understanding of economics, that's pretty dumb. Forcing people to lack just for the protection of an abstract model of human interaction? Lamesauce. That's part of why I said there's a lot more problems to solve than just technical ones. We need to keep trying to become better people, and set up better systems to use.

Hell, there's probably more work needed on the political and social sides than there is on the technology side.