Good morning Asgardia,
It will not the first time that I will use Star Trek and its philosophy to explain my idea of Asgardia. For it's future, Asgardia needs money? I have not an answer in this moment but Star Trek give us one.
Manu ...
Good morning Asgardia,
It will not the first time that I will use Star Trek and its philosophy to explain my idea of Asgardia. For it's future, Asgardia needs money? I have not an answer in this moment but Star Trek give us one.
Manu Saadia, in his book "Trekonomics", says this: “It’s made clear and emphasized several times in the course of the show that the Federation does not have money. You have
Captain Picard
saying, ‘We’ve overcome hunger and greed, and we’re no longer interested in the accumulation of things.'
Saadia is fascinated by the idea of a society in which material wealth has become so abundant that possessing it no longer holds any appeal. In such a world the only way to gain status would be by cultivating talent and intellect.
He says: "What really makes sense in the
Star Trek
universe and
Star Trek
society is to compete for reputation. What is not abundant in
Star Trek’
s universe is the captain’s chair.”
He points to technologies like GPS and the internet as models for how we can set ourselves on the path to a
Star Trek
future.
“If we decide as a society to make more of these crucial things available to all as public goods, we’re probably going to be well on our way to improving the condition of everybody on Earth,” he says.
In 1941 Asimov published his first story about robots and his great idea and insight was that the robots are not going to be our enemies or our doom as a society, the way robots were usually portrayed, as Frankensteins. The robots will liberate us, and so Asimov was trying to figure out a world where human labor will no longer necessary for survival.
Saadia says, in his book, that is something you see throughout
Star Trek
, much more so in
The Next Generation
than in the original series. In
The Next Generation
you have these incredible machines that will make anything for you on the spot and on demand—the replicators—and in a way the replicator is a metaphor for universal automation the way it is described in Asimov’s robot stories.”
But he also warns that technology alone won’t create a post-scarcity future. If we’re not careful we could end up like the greedy
Ferengi
, who charge money for the use of their
replicators
rather than making them available to everyone.
He says: “The Federation's citizens are consistent with the economic circumstances in which they live. Imagine yourself growing up in a society where there is never any want or need or financial insecurity of any sort. You will be a very different person. You will be absolutely uninterested in conspicuous consumption. … You will probably be interested in things of a higher nature—the cultivation of the mind, education, love, art, and discovery. And so these people are very stoic in that sense, because they have no worldly interests that we today could relate to.
So, it's possible this future for Asgardia?
