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initramfs2 | 16 days ago

I am also fairly certain that if we do arrive at some abundant utopia where you can wish for anything can have it arrive, society will collapse. It's just bringing up 7 billion (probably more) spoiled brats at that point of time. Work on its own is also a form of "social control". Idle hands are the devil's tools etc.

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jbxntuehineoh|15 days ago

Imo instead of no-strings-attached UBI we should have something like the WPA. Spend ten hours a week or whatever working in local parks/schools/libraries/etc and get paid a basic living wage in return

ndsipa_pomu|16 days ago

Throughout history, big advances have come from humans having more "idle time", so we should be aiming for the population to be less busy as they can then hopefully focus on pursuing the arts or sciences.

NegativeK|16 days ago

Big advances have also come from some of the most violent, destructive wars the planet has seen.

I agree with you on principle, but I don't think it's straightforward as your point states.

gedy|16 days ago

> big advances have come from humans having more "idle time"

A few people

RiverCrochet|15 days ago

If you can wish for anything and have it arrive, spoiled brats won't be a thing, because competition and envy for things will be pointless.

jcgl|15 days ago

Throughout history, the hedonic treadmill has always triumphed. Competition and envy conjure their own objects.

Even if you want to allege that the proverbial pie will become infinitely large, any one person’s slice is finite. However big my neighbor’s slice might be, I can strive to make mine even bigger.

ThrowawayR2|15 days ago

Humans being humans, they will find something petty and pointless to compete socially for or even kill each other for despite being provided infinite physical abundance.

int_19h|14 days ago

Collapse in a sense of many existing power structures becoming meaningless, yes, certainly.

But that is a good thing.