I’d never leave it. I think it could become a problem. But it would be so much fun!
I’m sure something will be scarce in a world with replicators, teleporters, etc… The question would be what, and who controls it.
I’d personally be happy with clean and easy fusion power. I think that handled well, that could be the source of a lot of good in the world .
Time – there’s only so much of it.
Land area, especially livable land area with an atmosphere and 1 g gravity
individual people and their time
works of art and handicrafts.
Pretty much all tech makes something less scarce. I’d agree that a replicator like in star trek would be the most disruptive invention of all time, but it would not end scarcity, nor trade.
I don’t buy this, or that all tech makes things less scarce. But a magic “make you anything you want” machine will throw a huge monkey wrench into our whole economic system, even if some things necessarily remain scarce. That was George O. Smith’s point.
That is what i want. In ST-ToS, apparently they had a basic food-like substance that was changed into whatever you wanted. We can do that now- see “fake meat soy”. But not in the home yet, on any sort of scale.
Apparently size is an issue with replicators.
You don’t buy what? Your conclusion – of big disruption to the economic system even though some things will remain scarce – is the same thing I just said.
On the second part of the sentence though, you’re right: I forgot there that some tech opens up completely new functions or possibilities for us. It is only tech allows us to do something more efficiently that arguably makes something (tangible or otherwise) less scarce.
Some of those scarce things will not be controlled by anyone: love and friendship, for instance. Things that replicators, holodecks and teleporters cannot do.
They are already scarce today and always have been for a reason: they need investment of the personal kind, the sort of investment where you cannot calculate the interest rate, there is no amortisation, and no bank can give you a start up loan.
But careful! Don’t get that confused with religions. Somebody controls those, and they are not as good for you as love and friendship.
Labor, more than anything, would be valuable, I’d think. Haircutters, medical providers, designers, artists, entertainers, electricians (might do away with plumbers if you replicate water and de-replicate toilet contents, but then we enter into the aspects of mass in the universe and the ecosystem and such, which are really a bit more “real” than what I was thinking when I proposed the thread, but still quite fun to discuss in their own way), accountants, etc. And, of course, programmers to put things into replicators. Probably there would be various analysts to make sure any consumable put in was safe and possibly to verify/declare nutritional content for food. If there were high barriers/costs (getting it all verified, allergens declared, etc.) for food items, then there may end up a market for advertisers to get people to buy “recipes.” But I’d also expect digital piracy and shady sites online where you could take your chances on unregulated “products” from companies or even uploaded by random users as well.
It’s certainly a disruptive technology - the faster it comes, the more it disrupts. But there have been disruptive technologies before and while they transformed economies, economies still exist. They freed up people/labor to do more productive, more highly-compensated work, and the overall material quality of life of almost everyone is better than a century ago and certainly better than five centuries ago because of it.
There’s some. The Thuselah symbiont from The Apocalypse Troll, “Dikta immortality” from A World Out of Time come to mind offhand. There’s more that keep you youn but won’t make you younger if you start it late, like boosterspice from Known Space or Prolong from the Honorverse setting.
Medical nanites on standby in one’s bloodstream to immediately repair all bodily damage and degeneration.
For a grim take on that you have A for Anything, where the invention of a replication device causes humanity to immediately transition to a slave economy because human labor (and violence) is the only thing the device can’t replicate. Even the slaves themselves can be copied, so they are not only enslaved, but utterly disposable.
Put me in the “teleporter and holodeck” camp.
Like Horatius above, I like being in new places, I just don’t like getting to them. So a way to travel instantly (and safely - the transporter malfunction scene from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization still haunts me to this day) from point A to point B would be right up my alley.
As for holodecks - I’m already a VR nut. I can lose myself in fake worlds for hours if they’re compelling enough. That’s genuinely the way I’d like to spend my time if I ever end up needing to be in some sort of assisted-living situation. Just hook me up to the Matrix, poke me occasionally so I can take care of various bodily needs, and let me go somewhere interesting.
Not familiar with it, but not my style. But certainly, it depends on whether or not living things can be replicated (even yeast) and other specific limitations of whatever fiction’s replicator technology you want to exist. Also on how much energy that one uses.
Off the top of my head, there’s the anti- and reverse-aging technologies in Iain Banks’ Culture books and Peter F Hamilton’s Commonwealth books and Neil Asher’s Polity books. Characters are effectively immortal and live as long as they choose. I’m sure there are many other examples. The difference is these stories include the longevity as part of the story setting, but are not about longevity as stories that you describe as making it “parasitic or destructive” probably are.
I recently reread the 7 Hamilton Commonwealth books (the first two were at least my third reread) and I was thinking about all of the things that weren’t concentrated on in the books. A passage would mention something being cleaned up by a household robot, but it didn’t take time to tell how the robot moved, how it looked, the technology inside of it, etc. Household robots are occasionally mentioned, but only briefly, just enough that you know robots are all over the background of the story but not important enough to intrude on the story (but would necessarily be all over any accurate movie/streaming version if it was ever attempted). Other stories are about robots, these just have robots.
I think holodecks might be more disruptive than replicators. Look at today’s closest approach, generative AI, and how many people are livid that it exists and how it is trained. Think about all the people complaining that the Dixon Hill books were used to train Picard’s program, and that Leah Brahms didn’t give Geordi permission to use her image…
Somebody’s gotta say it: The Orgasmatron from Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
I would like a TARDIS.
I would finally have enough room for all my stuff.
I know a piece of land I could park it on with truly minimal cost per year (though of course one could also travel with it).
I have people who I would invite to live in it with me, and there will be room for all their stuff as well.
Yes, yes, a TARDIS for me.
It may not be as interesting as it sounds.
Cheap, clean, safe energy is far more useful than any wizz-bang techno-toys.
Thank you! I was familiar with the novel but couldn’t recall the title to save my life. I was almost ready to " Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification"
At this point after years of watching that thread, I think “pretty good” is an understatement.