Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
We are still tied to reality and cannot truly experience a post-scarcity society
(cross-posted to TV Tropes's On-Topic Conversations subforum, here)
See, for those of us who are living in middle and upper middle class households in first-world countries (or what passes for that these days), or are in college, we've got a lot of resources and free time on our hands.
We're frequently found discussing things on message boards. Discovering new media on Youtube. Running into and indulging ourselves in new memes. We can rather easily supply ourselves with hardware--most likely, our parents bought our computers for us or we bought ourselves something that's half-decent and cheap, or better. Accessories like headphones, speakers, and wireless mice are easy to come by. Software can be mostly found for free--between all the open-source and non-open-source freeware programs out there, and all the games, TV shows, and movies that can be acquired for free via legal or less-than-legal means, we have access to pretty much anything a computer can ever do, save maybe really-high-end gaming and design capabilities. And we can just hunt for stuff on the cheap if we need it. Or beg our parents for it.
We have little worry for food, water, clothing, shelter, or other basic needs. Maybe we'll be asked to do chores, or fix some meals. But when push comes to shove, we have a very generous safety net.
This, my friends, is our little taste of what a post-scarcity utopia is truly like. We get to organize ourselves into social groups and find common activities with which to enjoy our lives. We get to troll people and play pranks at our leisure. We get to spend endless hours playing computer games and commenting on internet forums. We get to philosophize endlessly, occupy ourselves with hobbies, speculate about celebrities and the media, involve ourselves in causes and politics, and lend helping hands those around us anytime we like.
But all good things will come to an end someday. The blissfully ignorant lifestyles we lead will eventually give way to more responsibilities and obligations, and we will have to bid farewell to our carefree living, and with it, many of our beloved activities, interests, ambitions, and even friends.
Discuss.
See, for those of us who are living in middle and upper middle class households in first-world countries (or what passes for that these days), or are in college, we've got a lot of resources and free time on our hands.
We're frequently found discussing things on message boards. Discovering new media on Youtube. Running into and indulging ourselves in new memes. We can rather easily supply ourselves with hardware--most likely, our parents bought our computers for us or we bought ourselves something that's half-decent and cheap, or better. Accessories like headphones, speakers, and wireless mice are easy to come by. Software can be mostly found for free--between all the open-source and non-open-source freeware programs out there, and all the games, TV shows, and movies that can be acquired for free via legal or less-than-legal means, we have access to pretty much anything a computer can ever do, save maybe really-high-end gaming and design capabilities. And we can just hunt for stuff on the cheap if we need it. Or beg our parents for it.
We have little worry for food, water, clothing, shelter, or other basic needs. Maybe we'll be asked to do chores, or fix some meals. But when push comes to shove, we have a very generous safety net.
This, my friends, is our little taste of what a post-scarcity utopia is truly like. We get to organize ourselves into social groups and find common activities with which to enjoy our lives. We get to troll people and play pranks at our leisure. We get to spend endless hours playing computer games and commenting on internet forums. We get to philosophize endlessly, occupy ourselves with hobbies, speculate about celebrities and the media, involve ourselves in causes and politics, and lend helping hands those around us anytime we like.
But all good things will come to an end someday. The blissfully ignorant lifestyles we lead will eventually give way to more responsibilities and obligations, and we will have to bid farewell to our carefree living, and with it, many of our beloved activities, interests, ambitions, and even friends.
Discuss.
Comments
"We get to philosophize endlessly, occupy ourselves with hobbies, speculate about celebrities and the media, involve ourselves in causes and politics, and lend helping hands those around us anytime we like."
"The blissfully ignorant lifestyles we lead will eventually give way to more responsibilities and obligations, and we will have to bid farewell to our carefree living, and with it, many of our beloved activities, interests, ambitions, and even friends."
That never stopped loads of people. They just do it on their spare time. Speaking of which, what does a job in the humanities or even mathematics entail?
"We have little worry for food, water, clothing, shelter, or other basic needs."
In fact, arts and humanities came after humans had spare time to not worry about basic needs.
On a side note, it's been said that very few people here talk about their life off the Internet. This thread shows they do, but it's not necessarily as direct.
Worst thing is that she cannot stop thinking that the things she enjoys
are going to end, and very soon. This one is 22, for Cthulhu's sake!
This one honestly cannot see anything to look forward too, because, well, her future can only be worse than present.
To some extent, the good times may already have ended. My parents' generation, the baby boomers, had the advantage of job security, a growing economy, relatively cheap housing and a strong welfare state in a way that my generation, let alone anyone younger, certainly won't. Technological progress is only part of this.