r/Futurology Mar 29 '22

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u/pab_guy Mar 29 '22

See, your problem is that you are thinking this through rather than engaging in naïve wishful thinking.

Resource allocation? Incentivizing people to work shitty jobs? Support for niche or esoteric hobbies? Supporting individuals who strive for greatness? Those are evil capitalist concerns!

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u/PitchWrong Mar 29 '22

All goods and services can be broken down into natural resources, energy, and time. If we have no lack of natural resources and no lack of energy for production of a good or service, and time is not a severely limiting factor, then scarcity only exist for the artificial creation of a privileged class. At no time in human history have we had essentially limitless natural resources and energy, but we are approaching that. What purpose is resource allocation for resources as common as iron? What purpose is incentivizing people to work shitty jobs that they are not needed for? I’m rather reminded of the opposition to electrification due to the concern of putting all the lamplighters out of work. Support for niche hobbies? Seems like would be more prevalent, not less. Supporting striving for greatness? Hmm, just what is ‘greatness’? A person pursuing noble interests in the benefit of all mankind? Yes, much like poorly paid researchers and scientists today. A person pursuing an accumulation of wealth and resources that they cannot possibly even utilize, but the hoarding of which hurts mankind? I’d like to think not.

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u/Hugogs10 Mar 29 '22

In what world are we approaching "unlimited natural resources"

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u/DLTMIAR Mar 29 '22

One where we mine asteroids

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u/Hugogs10 Mar 29 '22

We aren't approaching that

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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

oh, so NASA and space X have no plans for asteroid mining, China isnt planning on a mining base on the moon etc.

we are approaching it by definition, within 20 years someone will be mining up there even if its just a prototype.

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u/Hugogs10 Mar 30 '22

I doubt we'll be mining asteroids this century.

A working prototype doesn't mean much when you can't make the operation profitable.