From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Jan 28 2001 - 15:08:03 MST
GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Maybe there's more, but I think this would do it very well. I would like to
> > see what happens if everyone, with no work required and no compensation
> > expected, could be granted all of the above benefits, by means of some
> > self-maintaining technology. I speculate the world would be a better place.
> We used to talk about this a lot - but the subject hasn't come up lately.
> The basic concept held by some is that a very sophisticated nanotech-enabled
> economy would be so rich that "the basics" as you describe them could be
> provided to people at such low cost that they would be essentially free. As
> some have speculated, "free basics" might come with some strings attached,
> such as built-in advertising, or as a give-away in connection with some other
> goods or services. Beyond this, a sufficiently wealthy and technologically
> advanced civilization might be able to afford universal "free basics" as a
> matter of charity.
>
I find this idea very appealing also. Especially if you throw in all
the computing power you could want and full access to information. Then
people like me who have some strange scheme they want to work on but
can't find a backer need not worry about starving or becoming homeless
while developing it. It could be very liberating.
On the other hand I think that some 90% of the population would go into
ultimate couch potato land, breed like rabbits and spend the rest of
their time killing one another and doing other basic hominid madness.
Many people claim and believe that they only reason to work is because
they have to. Perhaps not having to would enable them to find things to
do that are more uplifting or interesting for their own sake. But I
wouldn't count on it. Now I have known a lot of techno-hippies over the
years that lived off of government checks (SSI and such) and did
wonderful fantastic works of their own design which could not have been
done in a paying job. It would be good if everyone got the chance to do
this.
- samantha
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