Re: How to get Post-Scarcity?

Bernard Peek <bap@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In message <1214694338.45975@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Michael Ash
<mike@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes

Small populations could get anything. A population of one million per
planet could thrive quite well.

I don't buy it with current or near-future technology. You essentially
destroy all of the economies of scale which make most of the things we buy
so cheap. Consider that even with thriving global trade to bring them
anything they could want, a country with a population of one million would
have an extremely difficult time putting a satellite in orbit or building
a PC from scratch.

A million is too low, but you don't need 7 billion either. The
population of the UK is about 60 million. That's enough to do it I
think.

I don't know where the number lies but I agree with your general
assessment.

Remember that a significant chunk of the US and UK populations
are just working to create things to fill the excess spare time of the
people who actually do something useful.

This is a strange argument in my mind. The whole point of the Singularity
is to let you recreate in an unlimited fashion. :) If you place me in a
world of a million people that's supposed to be just like today, but tell
me that none of the stuff I like to do in my leisure time is available
because all of the people who created it were considered redundant, I'd be
rather annoyed.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon
.

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