Its sad. The state of things has progressed to the point where idiotic questions are asked because we are afraid to make a single decision that might in some way offend someone's sensibilities. I would be willing to bet that there is now someone out there that is formulating a request for grant money to study the possibility of alienating a cross-section of the public by making their eyesight fully color spectrum aware. My God, I live in a society full of pussies.
OK, let's look at the effect of technology on a society.
The star trek universe has:
1) Replicators capable of creating any material object except gold pressed latinum.
2) Holodecks (presumably a replicated product) that can create any imaginable experience.
3) A seemingly unlimited number of colony worlds where any group can migrate via the magic of ships with warp drive (created via the replicator)
4) Unlimited energy using matter-antimatter.
OK, so in that environment, a capitalistic society is nearly impossible. There's nothing to buy or sell. As replicators themselves are replicated, anything of "value" can be had for virtually nothing. Acquisition, per se, now means nothing. Experiences themselves are similarly cheap, or free. If your neighbors complain, you leave and join the anarcho-syndicalist collective colony on Kaka 4. Where does capitalism fit in with this technology?
There's booze. What about cheap drinkable booze? All those replicators did was make some swill that didn't have any debilitating effects. I'd be willing to bet that a society that can instantaneously replicate stuff can't replicate a half-way decent single malt scotch. Actually I think this was a side topic in one of those episodes somewhere...
Slashdot Mirror
Its sad. The state of things has progressed to the point where idiotic questions are asked because we are afraid to make a single decision that might in some way offend someone's sensibilities. I would be willing to bet that there is now someone out there that is formulating a request for grant money to study the possibility of alienating a cross-section of the public by making their eyesight fully color spectrum aware. My God, I live in a society full of pussies.
OK, let's look at the effect of technology on a society.
The star trek universe has:
1) Replicators capable of creating any material object except gold pressed latinum.
2) Holodecks (presumably a replicated product) that can create any imaginable experience.
3) A seemingly unlimited number of colony worlds where any group can migrate via the magic of ships with warp drive (created via the replicator)
4) Unlimited energy using matter-antimatter.
OK, so in that environment, a capitalistic society is nearly impossible. There's nothing to buy or sell. As replicators themselves are replicated, anything of "value" can be had for virtually nothing. Acquisition, per se, now means nothing. Experiences themselves are similarly cheap, or free. If your neighbors complain, you leave and join the anarcho-syndicalist collective colony on Kaka 4. Where does capitalism fit in with this technology?
There's booze. What about cheap drinkable booze? All those replicators did was make some swill that didn't have any debilitating effects. I'd be willing to bet that a society that can instantaneously replicate stuff can't replicate a half-way decent single malt scotch. Actually I think this was a side topic in one of those episodes somewhere...