[davidajackson]

No doubt about the zero sum game in terms of a possible path in terms of wealth distribution. My question is what will be the function of the "sum part" as a society builds all technologies to 'completion' which is defined as when the utility of any new technology approaches zero because there is nothing 'valuable' or 'new to invent'.

A different argument is that as technology improves to infinity, wealth also becomes ubiquitous and potentially infinite. So even though no new technology is invented that is valuable, there is infinite wealth through abundance.

It seems to me that the primary driver of which world we end up in is whether humanity is able to become multi-planetary. Otherwise, resources become a constraint and instead of discovering new existing resources, humanity can only create value by inventing new technology.

These are not strong opinions.

[Spooky23]

Gene Roddenberry‘s Star Trek universe was a humanist post-scarcity society. There were a number of thinkers that informed that vision.

I think you are thinking in a meaningful way deserving of exploration. Our society as organized today isn’t ordained or divine. There are many cracks in the armor, and it’s likely that things will evolve in one way or another.

It’s hard to talk about because people cling strongly to what they want to believe and have trouble thinking about what could be.