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In the future I'm envisioning, a lot of present-day problems are no more troublesome than arranging ice for one's ice-box is today. Enough experience has been gained with technology and social institutions that the median person can make all the preparations they want for short-term and long-term survival, and for any reasonably likely emergencies... and still have enough resources left for personal enjoyment. Like taking up a hobby, such as indulging in a form of physical exercise that's not quite a sport.
I'm also indulging in the fantasy that humanity gets enough industrial capacity installed outside Earth to start bootstrapping into full-scale colonies, some of which have good-sized, air-filled volumes in freefall. (Elon Musk may not be D.D. Harriman, but is a reasonably close approximation for our timeline; and the 1970's proposals to build solar-power satellites may have fallen victim to improved solar cells and batteries down here on Earth, but since this is all hopeful imagining, I can imagine that somebody came up with /some/ reason to lift the initial set of hardware into orbit.)
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tailsteak
In the future I'm envisioning, a lot of present-day problems are no more troublesome than arranging ice for one's ice-box is today. Enough experience has been gained with technology and social institutions that the median person can make all the preparations they want for short-term and long-term survival, and for any reasonably likely emergencies... and still have enough resources left for personal enjoyment. Like taking up a hobby, such as indulging in a form of physical exercise that's not quite a sport.
I'm also indulging in the fantasy that humanity gets enough industrial capacity installed outside Earth to start bootstrapping into full-scale colonies, some of which have good-sized, air-filled volumes in freefall. (Elon Musk may not be D.D. Harriman, but is a reasonably close approximation for our timeline; and the 1970's proposals to build solar-power satellites may have fallen victim to improved solar cells and batteries down here on Earth, but since this is all hopeful imagining, I can imagine that somebody came up with /some/ reason to lift the initial set of hardware into orbit.)
Art by
tailsteak
Category Artwork (Digital) / General Furry Art
Species Rat
Size 1280 x 975px
File Size 154 kB
Listed in Folders
> I like this future you're envisioning. It does sound quite nice :)
My main guideline is that at some point, there's a sharp turn from the present-day mercentalist, oligarchic, kleptocratic form of capitalism towards a more social-democratic, competitive form of a free market. Things like a Basic Guaranteed Income (or Negative Income Tax, or equivalent), free tuition, regulatory bodies that haven't been captured, penitentiary systems that are actually aimed at rehabilitation instead of extracting every possible cent from the inmates and their families, and other such fanciful dreams.
Of course, at some point, somebody figured out how to digitize human minds, and somebody else how to create custom bodies on demand, so we've ended up firmly in a Singularity-level future. Robin Hanson's "Age of Em" offers a lot of insight into at least one version of such a future, which is handy as a baseline to consider further variations.
My main guideline is that at some point, there's a sharp turn from the present-day mercentalist, oligarchic, kleptocratic form of capitalism towards a more social-democratic, competitive form of a free market. Things like a Basic Guaranteed Income (or Negative Income Tax, or equivalent), free tuition, regulatory bodies that haven't been captured, penitentiary systems that are actually aimed at rehabilitation instead of extracting every possible cent from the inmates and their families, and other such fanciful dreams.
Of course, at some point, somebody figured out how to digitize human minds, and somebody else how to create custom bodies on demand, so we've ended up firmly in a Singularity-level future. Robin Hanson's "Age of Em" offers a lot of insight into at least one version of such a future, which is handy as a baseline to consider further variations.
There are a few other downsides not mentioned yet, such as never being able to "put 'em up" if held up by bandits, the bathroom issues, and people who keep wanting to use you as a projection screen.
But, on occasion, even seemingly bad ideas turn out to be worthwhile, so it's worth considering them more often than you think you need to.
But, on occasion, even seemingly bad ideas turn out to be worthwhile, so it's worth considering them more often than you think you need to.
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