Advertisement
thepreston

Replicators and Scarcity

Dec 8th, 2013
52
0
Never
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
text 2.25 KB | None | 0 0
  1. Assuming that each person has their own personal replicator that can arrange matter in any way at all and magically requires no energy, we'll still have scarcity.
  2. This is because demands are always infinite, not just in quantity but in variety.
  3. For example, a person desires a delicious steak dinner.
  4. This person selects a cut of meat, type of seasoning, rarity, etc, and the replicator instantly produces a ready-to-eat steak.
  5. It could be the case that what the replicator produces will not satisfy that person's desire for a steak, just like you could cook a steak at home in today's world and you don't end up liking it.
  6. To solve this, the person will need to know exactly what arrangement of matter is needed to create a steak that will satisfy their desire, and then they will need to command the replicator to produce this arrangement.
  7. All of that takes time (limited) and creativity (limited).
  8. Assuming that this person is successful, and they get a steak that sufficiently satisfies their desire for a steak dinner, how do we know that this particular steak is the most satisfying to this person?
  9. Even in today's world without replicators, I could go to the store and get uncooked steak, look up a recipe online, figure out how to cook it, then cook it, and create a steak that I find satisfying, but its certainly possible that someone with more skill and more creativity could use the same resources I had at my disposal to make a steak that I would like better.
  10. I may even pay this person to provide me with a better steak dinner experience if that's what I wanted. That willingness to pay is my willingness to sacrifice something scarce to me in order to get something that satisfies my desire for a better steak dinner. In a magical replicator world, that might be my willingness to use some of my time and my creativity to serve other's desires while they do the same for me.
  11. Additionally, there are most likely going to be demands for goods/services that can't be created by a replicator like: football games, new works of art, new music, new movies, advertising, new designs to be used in your replicator, companionship, roughing it in the wilderness, etc etc all of which take time, effort, creativity and will require allocation of scarce means by human choice, inescapably.
Advertisement
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Advertisement