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Hi there

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread in HLF for discussing what the world would be like if humanity had virtually unlimited access to any resource. If the world ends up in a state like this, it would probably also include a general super intelligence that either contributes to the advances that lead to virtually unlimited resources, or it would be a natural result of resources being unlimited. You may imagine that the resources are created through efficient conversion of energy from celestial bodies such as the sun.

Given that the volume of the observable universe is finite, it's clear that there is no meaning in assuming that the topic is about what the world would be like if all the volume of the observable universe was completely occupied by your favourite dessert.

Instead, consider the question in terms of the more meaningful topic of the supply of all kinds of resources far exceeding the limit of their meaningful consumption. This includes all resources such as those that provide humans a place to live (imagine that the resources allow for an ever-expanding earth-wide housing complex), food to stay alive (imagine the resources that provide universal free drone delivery of any food, any time), and any additional medical resources that may be needed (imagine the resources that allow free unlimited access to molecular medicine capable of responding to any complication).

If this situation is difficult to relate to, you may compare it to a video game where you have a device that can modify the game state and give yourself as many resources as you like. It may also help to imagine a situation where the price of everything decreases to being essentially free.

Do you think it's possible for a world like this to exist?

What would you do if you didn't have to worry about food, rent or finding a job?

Would you change your life goals?

Would you have any concerns?

Looking forward to reading your responses

Blasty

// @BlastytheBlue // Blasty#5167

| Co-owner of Mine Nation

29-Nov-2016 11:24:28

29-Nov-2016 11:54:29 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2016 12:04:46 by Singularity

29-Nov-2016 12:01:28 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2016 12:02:14 by Singularity

Thanks for your reply, Singularity It's always nice to read your responses!

Singularity said :
If everything in the world was free, what motivations would you have to do anything "productive"? Would "productivity" even be a thing? Right now, money is our motivation to better our lives. Take that away, and most of us are really "nothing". We're so used to living a money-controlled world that imagining a world not ruled by it proves difficult.

I think it's an interesting question to ask what "productivity" means in a world where resources are unlimited. The meaning of productivity in the world today is already a complicated problem as it varies from person to person. I think it's interesting to consider that if anyone actually did have a complete understanding of the way people perceive productivity, then surely we would be in a world where everyone is collaborating efficiently towards the same goal.

Instead, it appears that everyone's overall goals are different with an overlapping sub-goal of money, which provides general access to resources. If people spent less time working on the sub-goal of money, and were able to put more time and resources towards their main goals, what kind of new goals would we start to see?

Singularity said :
I could do anything that popped into my mind. Any thought I had I could act on. Right now, that's something in the Music field. I can't quite pursue it yet due to lack of technical skills and finance. Removing the "money worry" would definitely act as a motivation to pursue it. That's of course if that interests me at that point.

Aww, I hope things work out and you get the chance to give it a go!

Blasty

// @BlastytheBlue // Blasty#5167

| Co-owner of Mine Nation

29-Nov-2016 12:56:36 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2016 12:57:16 by Blasty

29-Nov-2016 18:05:51

Squallsy said :

Do you think it's possible for a world like this to exist?

its statistically likely that one does

What would you do if you didn't have to worry about food, rent or finding a job?

go back to perfecting my kenjutsu skills and find an emotional partner

Would you change your life goals?

i dont know

Would you have any concerns?

religion would still exist so theres still a massive reason for war, they like to kill people for believing different things

Looking forward to reading your responses

Ymw for the incredibly short answers

Those are pretty short I hope you get the chance to work on those kenjutsu skills

Blasty

// @BlastytheBlue // Blasty#5167

| Co-owner of Mine Nation

12-Dec-2016 00:38:20

Archaeox said :
Iain M. Banks' 'Culture' series of novels explore this very concept - highly recommended if you don't know them already.

Heyy Archaeox, thanks for the reply

I had a brief look into the Culture series, the topics covered in the stories look really interesting I don't think I'll manage to find the time to read them all, so I'll try to get a sense of what it's about from a summary. If there's a particular book in the series you would recommend, I'll try to find time to giving it a read

While reading a summary of The Culture, something I found interesting was that although the context of the plot is a post-scarcity future with advanced artificial intelligence, it feels like the big jumps in resources and tools like AI aren't complimented with changes in other areas like philosophy, communication and systems of organizing distributed behavior.

I'd imagine that philosophy, communication and systems of organizing distributed behavior in the world today are hugely different to what they were in early humanity, or even over the past few thousands of years. I'd hope, at least, that we're not likely to see a time like the dark ages of declined development.

With so much change in the way people live in the past thousand, hundred or even when you consider how technology has changed our lives in the past decade, it makes me wonder what changes we'll be able to see in our life time, and whether or not it will like The Culture or if it'll be something so different to today that we don't know how to describe it.

Blasty

// @BlastytheBlue // Blasty#5167

| Co-owner of Mine Nation

12-Dec-2016 01:10:04 - Last edited on 12-Dec-2016 04:53:10 by Blasty

12-Dec-2016 16:36:45