The offer of advancement that this alien/being provides humanity is something that would make such a profound change to society, I don’t even think we could imagine entirely how much it would change everything.
Imagine a world where resources are infinite, provided to everyone and where all humanity is free to pursue what they want and not have to struggle every day just to survive.
Imagine what that would do to all the systems we have in place to distribute resources and to manage resources. This would probably end the concept of nation states and capitalism. Well, maybe not nations, but it would change almost everything about what a Nation is.
If it’s given to everyone, the struggle that people have in their daily lives would change very quickly.
It would lead to an entirely different world. The only problem, is that some humans who have power now, would fight against it, because infinite energy would mean that single humans, or entities would no longer have the monopoly of power. That would be a dangerous period for humanity, the transition from the systems we have in place now, to a post-scarcity world.
It’s a diceless, politics/exploration-focused game set in a post-scarcity transhuman future. Basically, picture Star Trek if it actually worked out the societal implications of all the gonzo one-off technologies it introduces.
Rather than having conventional stats, player characters are defined by the tech levels they have access to, in discrete categories like Biotech, Cognitech, etc., as well as a set of narrative templates that trade raw capability for player-facing plot manipulation powers to ensure that lower-tech characters don’t get crowded out of the spotlight. The system scales smoothly from baseline humans all the way to up to sapient cities and group-minds with thousands of individual members – and theoretically higher, though player characters are specifically forbidden from taking more than one level of the “Infrastructure” trait; civilisation and planetary scale builds are thus restricted to NPCs.
The game’s first edition takes place in a post-scarcity space opera setting where the only remaining property worth owning is intellectual property; the players are cast as agents of an intergalactic copyright office. The second edition introduces a variety of alternative settings, including a Culture-esque first contact milieu and a galaxy-shattering war.
The free system reference document is available at the linked site, and you can pick up the full game here; it’s pay-what-you-want, but these are small-time independent authors, not big media corporations, so try to scrape together a few bucks if you can.
(Fair warning: the author has very particular ideas about how personal identity works, and societies that make routine use of group minds, resurrection via cloning, etc. consequently tend to be depicted as cartoonishly evil with no particular justification. That may rankle for some folks.)
I actually haven’t seen WALL-E, but from what I know of the movie, it sounds like the whole “lazy humans live in space and don’t need to work” scenario is Disney/Pixar’s answer to FALC, yeah. A lot of other films and media posit similar theories too – that full automation is a bad thing either because it’ll make us all “obsolete” and poor (because the writer can’t think outside of a capitalist framework where machines could be used to lessen unwanted labor rather than act as competition for workers) or because it’ll make us all lazy and hedonistic (because the writer doesn’t have enough faith in or imagination for the human condition to picture a scenario where full automation leads to a massive upsurge of art, culture, creative labor, and time for interpersonal relationships). I think it’s a tired trope that just needs to die already.
I’ve heard people argue that postulating about the post-capitalist future is pointless because that’ll be the job of the people of the future who do overthrow capitalism, but I couldn’t disagree more – the left needs to actively take back positive world-building if it’s going to ever have any long-term success in challenging capitalism. The people of today need a visionary goal to shoot for, something that will fuel their fire today. Describing an imaginative solarpunk world of culture and leisure in discourse and in fiction is a great place to start.
when i see those posts about like “what division of starfleet would you be” i’m like…. if the star trek universe was real i would just fuckin live on earth in a little house and chill out in post-scarcity utopia i’m not gonna go to space and DIE
This just makes me think about the Human Reputation as Space Orcs (which, let’s be real, THEY BASICALLY HAVE IN TREK-VERSE, THIS IS MORE OR LESS LITERALLY WHAT HAPPENED, they are just like friendly exuberant puppies so they often don’t realize), and how everyone knows Humans want to go out there and explore everything and poke all the dangerous shit.
And then one day someone visits Earth and goes to somewhere other than Starfleet Academy, or the big political centres. They decide THEY are going to do off the beaten path things, and go wander around small wine-growing villages in France, or a quiet Bedouin region or an elephant-human integrated habitat in Kenya or something.
And discover all the humans who think Starfleet Humans are basically adrenaline-junkie lunatics and just thank fuck there’s a nice big universe for them to go out and run around in, man, so they leave us alone and don’t poke shit around here. Why would you go get blown up at Deep Space 9 when you could chill out, work with elephants, write some poetry in the evening and teach kids to play soccer?
This only confuses the visitor more, because how the fuck does a species produce both ends of this. Like how the fuck.
Alright, for purely academic reasons regarding theory, I’m going to try to explain post-scarcity, and why money would have no function in a post-scarcity society, this has nothing to do with whether or not you believe it possible or not, this is just a visualization of why money has no meaning under post-scarcity
This is a scarce society, as you can see these items all have different amounts which I’ve arbitrarily given them. Now if we look at this graph we see that we have less food than water, and less water than transportation, and so on.
What this means is, food is more scarce, in this society, than water, people have an easier time obtaining water in this society than food. At the other end we see that people have a much more easier time obtaining medical care than water.
In this society, food is the most scarce item one can acquire, thus causing social strain, as everyone needs food, but it’s the most difficult thing to get, so in order to decide who gets the most scarce items they put a value on it, the value directly correlates with how difficult it is to get.
All items are finite, so all items have a value, because there is a certain difficulty to gain each item, all items cause social strain to both create and partake in.
Now this is a post-scarcity society
All items are as easy to get as the next, all of them are infinite, for the sake of explaining. There is no item in this society here that is more difficult to get than another, all items are infinitely easy to get for all. Therefore there is no reason to attribute value to these items because there is no difficulty in getting any of them.
Adding money to the mix does nothing, as none of these items are worth more or less than another, as no item is more or less scarce than another.
Money comes out of answering the question: “How should we allocate goods that are scarce, when we do not have enough for all to receive.”
This is no longer a question in a post-scarcity society, there are no scarce goods, all can receive as much as they want limitlessly. All are just as easy to produce and consume as the next, and because they’re no longer finite this means they’re entirely sustainable in said society, and can be reproduced on a massive scale with no strain on said society.
Why then attribute value to that which is value-less. No item is scarce, no item is worth more than another, there is nothing lacking in any of the items nor their production.
It is a meaningless thing to do, as once we are post-scarcity, nothing has value, because value only comes out of scarcity and the need decide who should get what and how. There is no decision making in this society, all can get however much they want and it changes nothing about the items for others.
If there is one post to this tumblr I want to see reblogged like crazy, it’s this one.
So how would a cashless society work? This is, IMHO, one of the most important questions to ask when discussing Star Trek in general.
Roddenberry had a vision which continues to motivate and inspire people today, because it envisioned humanity so far beyond its time. It allowed the show to craft an ideal. Something that may never be completely achieved, but that should be strived for continually. Providing not a roadmap, but a light to follow.
Social issues are incredibly important, and are not to be understated when discussing this specific topic- they are the fundamental ideals within the Star Trek universe. But close behind this is the concept of economic enlightenment. In fact, I would argue they are fundamentally one in the same. In order for us to find love among all of us, without any hate or envy or fear, we need to find means of providing for everyone, so that everyone can be given the same opportunities to choose how they live their lives.
One aspect of this Roddenberry version of a fair and enlightened global society would be one with no cash.
But How Does That Work?
How, can anything work without cash? Or to clarify, money? I don’t believe it could right now, but in the future, if certain issues were solved, we could be well on our way. Here are three aspects of our society that will need to be addressed or achieved before we would even be close:
1. There needs to be a movement to Post-Scarcity
People need to have easy access to homes, health, and the basic comforts that money currently is required to attain.
There’s a lot of talk about a “post-scarcity” economy. With 3d-printers, efficient production, and global access to information we are already moving towards this. But one big hurdle in this issue is energy. Until we find a means of providing nearly limitless energy to the entire planet, a post-scarcity society will be very hard to maintain. (Cold fusion is an exciting potential leap forward)
2. Automation for the dangerous jobs and Universal Basic Income
We need robots to do the repetitive and dangerous jobs people shouldn’t do or just don’t want to do. The more these jobs are taken up by robots, the more there will be a need for a Universal Basic Income. The general concept is this: companies that produce goods while removing jobs from the market will need to pay tax on the robots that were once paying jobs. The money will then be given to the citizens as a dividend. This will eventually be the foundation for providing a universal live-able distribution of resources to everyone.
3. Debt needs to be reversed
The final issue is debt will need to be removed from society. This is arguably the hardest to understand and I imagine even harder to implement. Our current understanding of economics runs on debt. Person A gives money to Person B so that person B can make more money and give back that money (plus interest) to person A. The problem is this seems to allow the money to be consolidated into large pools. Currently the top 8 richest people in the world hold more wealth than the bottom half.
We need a way to believe in a society that can work in reverse. A society where we pay it forward, rather than pay it back. This is where I haven’t fully understood the ideas being proposed. But one thing is certain, those in the top 1% will need to provide for those in need for this to ever work. There needs to be a rational, if not spiritual enlightenment among the richest in the world that we need to all have a place in society. A place unburdened by overwhelming fiscal obligation. When people don’t owe money, they can make the choices that benefit themselves and the rest of us at the same time. Rather than the choice that just makes them money.
I honestly think this is the biggest hurdle out of all of them. Because while the other issues can be solved with technological and political progress, this one truly requires a global enlightenment. Yes things like bitcoin and ethereum might help, but this is a bigger problem than just banking access and credit.
*Takes Deep Breath*
So that’s one take on Roddenberry’s vision of a cashless society. It’s something I truly hope comes to fruition. A world where people are secure in knowing they have access to healthcare, a home, and the ability to pursue their passion. A world where all its people are freed to be their best self. Where creativity and science and kindness have priority. Orchestras could play in the park for free. Artists could make paintings of anything for anyone they wish. Scientists can spend their time inventing what they believe will help the planet the most. And we can finally get to the business of exploring the stars.
The human steps onto the station from her shuttle, and walks into the scanner. It flashes – no weapons. I pity her, though there’s nothing I can do for her. By tomorrow she will be a slave the same as me; the Gaunvans collect ambassadors like trophies.
“Hello there! Amanda Thorn, ambassador for the Empire of Humanity. You’re a Ixian, correct?”
Mimicking human body language, I nod my head. "That’s correct. Ix Malasan. It is an honor to meet you.“
She smiles, reminding me again that she has somehow modified herself to breathe atmosphere suited to the Gaunvans rather than wear a respirator like myself. Other than that she appears to be a standard human, something I am led to believe is less and less common as they pursue the bizarre compulsion humans have to alter their bodies. Changing hair color, adding pigments to their skins in patterns and pictures, growing long tails or ears that mimic other species from their planet. No other known species tampers with their bodies like this.
“Not to be undiplomatic, she says, “but the Gaunvans enslaved your people. Why are you here?”
“We… reached a mutually beneficial agreement. We would have lost in combat and been eliminated, so we chose to preserve what we could of our culture. The Gaunvans are not naturally skilled at diplomacy, so they bring me along to assist and to show that peace can be made.”
She nods. "Understood. I can respect that choice. How much freedom do you have, personally?“
Smart of her, to start planning for her future. "A fair amount. I have free reign on the ship when we are in transit. At the homeworld I have reasonably comfortable quarters.”
“Have you ever met the Empress, or…?”
“Oh, no. No, while on the homeworld I am confined to my chambers – but they’re quite spacious.”
“Shame. Okay, plan ‘A’ then. Let’s get this over with.”
Despite my attempt at encouraging diplomacy, the Gaunvan commander starts with threats. I don’t know why I bother. He looms over the human, chitinous plates almost black in the dim light. His pod of six is posted around the room, for show more than for actual security since she followed orders and came alone and unarmed. "Failure to surrender will bring the full wrath of our army upon you. Humanity will be crushed, and wiped from the universe.“
To her credit, she looks very calm. "We live in a post-scarcity society. Bloody conquest just seems silly, doesn’t it?”
“It is for the glory of Gaun!”
“Well, I’m not prepared to get into a religious debate with you,” she says, “since I doubt there’s anything I can do to change your mind. Since you’re committed to this course of action, what are you willing to offer if we surrender?”
Now he goes back on script. Maybe I am getting through to him a little? He talks about the benefits of being enslaved, mainly the protections for up to twelve designated culturally historical sites. They’ve been mostly good on their word on my homeworld, though they did use the area just outside of the Hahhn Memorial as a waste dump.
She nods as she listens. There was a part of me that was worried she would argue, because the humans are somewhat childlike. They don’t understand the horrors of war. Certainly they fought in the past, but the last time they had to battle was more than two of their generations ago, so these ones have all grown up coddled and soft. They play games with each other instead, silly competitions. They make art, and play pretend, and alter their bodies for fun. They don’t have weapons anymore, and wouldn’t know how to use them if they did.
“Well then,” ambassador Thorn says, “this is about what I expected. On behalf of humanity, I would like to formally reject this offer.”
Oh no. Foolish humans. The galaxy will miss your innocence. The commander makes an excited clicking noise, looking forward to combat. He reaches a blade-tipped hand towards ambassador Thorn, but hesitates as every device in the room bleats out an alert – we’ve all lost communications with the outside.
Like one of the dances humans do, she gracefully pivots around while taking his hand. She ends up close to him and places her other arm against his thorax, then… oh gods. Gods, what… she’s ripped his arm off. It’s not possible. The commander is clearly thinking the same thing, staring in mute shock at his dripping limb.
“I’d like to extend a counter-offer,” she says, and flips the arm around before jamming the bladed end into his neck. The warriors around the room are fidgeting, uncertain. They haven’t been told to attack, and don’t want to dishonor their commander by intervening in a fight with such a small creature. She’s still holding the commander’s severed arm in his neck, but she rotates and heaves, lifting him off the ground with it for a moment… and then his head pops off, landing squarely on the conference table. She allows the corpse to slide to the ground, and straightens her clothes as if they aren’t covered in ichor.
I don’t understand.
The warriors, now with no orders at all, finally act. She smiles as they come for her, I suppose because she has done her duty to send this powerful message of resistance. She can die in peace. Or… no… She’s killing them. She’s smiling because this is fun for her. Though they’re partly killing themselves; if there had been two of them, prepared, strategic, they might have prevailed. Watching six panicked fighters get in each other’s way while trying to stop a smaller, faster, and somehow impossibly stronger foe is almost hypnotic. At least one is killed by the stab of a friendly lance due to pure confusion. It’s over faster than I would have thought possible, severed limbs strewn across the room. I’ve got some fluids splashed across my clothing. Only one yet lives, and he is retreating. She seems to be allowing it.
She follows behind, holding a lance. The wounded and scared warrior scurries down the hallway towards his ship, looking back behind him as he goes. She’s just… walking. Calm. And for some reason I’m following. The last Gaunvan reaches the airlock and the second he enters his code she throws the lance – throws it! – and spears him.
“Come on, we’re stealing their ship.” She says it like this is the most normal thing in the world.
“There are thousands more on board! Thousands! Almost all warrior caste!”
She smiles again, and keeps walking. I see errors on the screens that we pass, messages indicating communications have been lost. They can’t tell anyone what is happening here. Even the communicators within the ship are on nodes rather than being wired, so the warriors at one end of the vessel won’t be able to coordinate with the other end. Do they even know they’ve been boarded?
“How?”
We enter the bridge after she kills a handful of other guards with ease. They’re too shocked by her presence to act in time. Once the door are sealed and she is working on the control systems she starts talking to me again.
“Well, you know, we do like to be prepared.”
“But you… you ripped his arm off.”
“Yeah, that was super satisfying.” She looks at me appraisingly. "Oh, come on. Is it really that surprising? You knew we were into changing ourselves, right? Being strong enough to pop an overgrown bug’s forelimb off isn’t rocket science.“
"Your people are so peaceful…”
“Oh, sure, most of them. But we did that, too. Tweaked ourselves over the years to decrease aggression and some of our tribalistic tendencies, increase empathy… all stuff that can be undone if needed. Though for a good cause even the nicest of us can squish a bug or two.”
“You bond with Ry’ling devourers!”
“Those are the big fuzzy guys that look like cats, yeah? Those guys are adorable! But… look, liking some things that could kill us doesn’t mean we’ll sit back and get enslaved. We didn’t put up with it well when we enslaved each other, and we certainly aren’t going to go for it now that we’re… finally… on the same page about slavery being unacceptable. It was, uh, a longer time than we like to admit before the last hold-outs were convinced of that one.”
I can feel the ship un-dock. We’re moving. "What about all the warriors on board? They’ll break through the doors eventually!“
"Not according to this control panel here. Take a look.”
It says there’s no atmosphere in the rest of the ship. Life signs are negative on all but two of the warriors, presumably the only ones that got to their suits in time. She disabled all the safety measures, somehow. She just killed… I check the life signs readout again to confirm the number… three thousand, six hundred, and fourteen soldiers. Wait, how is it tracking that unless… “Are communications back up?”
“Yeah, I’m calling some friends. The military is right around the corner, so to speak.”
“But Earth doesn’t have a standing military.”
She laughs. Not just a little bit. She’s actually doubled over for a moment, unable to catch her breath. "Sweet Jeebus, you guys actually fell for that? No standing military. Have you read about us at all?“
Three ships appear seemingly out of nowhere, and one docks with the Gaunvan vessel. Once the atmosphere is restored we head to the airlock to meet them, and I’m surprised by an entire platoon of Gaunvan warriors. Speaking English.
"Okay boys, send your last goodbyes! This is in all likelihood a one way mission. Commander Thorn! It is an honor to see you again, and might I say you look exquisite drenched in the blood of your enemies!”
She bows to him, blushing, and then salutes the Gaunvans. Or… humans? Can they change themselves this drastically?
“You’ve got two holed up in here somewhere. Bridge is clear, have the techs bring the new brain on board.”
“New brain?”
She looks at me like she’s forgotten that I’m here, and then turns back to the others. "Men, this is our new friend Ix Malasan who has just been liberated from his captivity. He’s going to be helping with our intel. Malasan, yeah, a new brain for the ship. Once this vessel is cleaned up and back in service with a new crew we’ll be able to take it over whenever we want even if all of our boys get killed. We cooked up a really sadistic AI for it.“
"But how do you know the protocols? This was your first contact with the Gaunvans, they’ve never lost a ship anywhere near here!”
“No? There wasn’t a mining colony disaster two years ago?”
“But that was just an accident… and you weren’t even involved in the war yet… and…”
The faux-Gaunvans have finished boarding. The one that was talking to them before puts a bladed claw on ambassador – commander – Thorn’s shoulder. "You coming with?“
"Naw. Orders said I could only come if they allow ambassadors near extremely high value targets. Malasan here says they don’t, so I need to wait for my next mission back on Earth.”
“It would have been nice having you with us, Thorn. Well, maybe we’ll see each other again. Suicide mission or not, I think I’ve decided to live through it.”
“Bold choice,” she says, and kisses him next to his lower mandibles.
He nods at me, then turns back to his men. “Okay everyone, we are now officially on the job. And what is that job?”
In unison, they start chanting.
“FUCK! SHIT! UP! FUCK! SHIT! UP! FUCK! SHIT! UP!”
For a moment I nearly feel pity for the Gaunvans. Nearly. Commander Thorn leads me off of the ship, and I start thinking about what useful information I can provide the ‘harmless’ humans. Fuck shit up, indeed.
“Out of the way, Tenno.” Wolf said coldly, “I’m not going to hurt her, idiot.”
With the Tenno refusing to move, Wolf grit his teeth in anger, his hand going to his sword.
“I said, out of the way.” Wolf growled, “Do not test me, Tenno. You’re on my lands, you do as I say.”
To that, the Trinity Prime gave a quick tilt of the head, as if to draw Wolf’s attention to something near them.
If Wolf looked, he would have seen several well-concealed figures just beyond the edge of the clearing. Plenty of other Tenno, all with their weapons lined on him.
…was that a Lenz one of them held?!
The healer Warframe got up silently, pacing around Wolf and the still-seated Yellow, who was trying to wordlessly request that the Tenno around them settle down.
If Wolf acted rashly, he was still outnumbered 20 to 1. Every Tenno sent to guard her was packing ridiculous levels of firepower.
“Well, you wanted to speak to me?” Yellow asked, trying to defuse the situation.
As beautiful as the whole training session was, Wolf just didn’t care at the moment. He was particularly pissed by the whole delay of the matter in front of him, of which he thought should be first priority over anything else. He had no patience at this moment.
Seeing the crowd of BEA soldiers gathering, Wolf growled, walking into the clearing, and looking at each and everyone who wasn’t a Tenno or Yellow.
“Get back to your fucking posts, or I will have every last bloody one of you shot.” He growled, “No exceptions. Fuck off, all of you!”
The rage Wolf displayed was enough to cause the entire crowd to disperse.
Finishing a sweeping slash, the pair looked up at the approaching Wolf.
Immediately, the Trinity Prime stepped forward and placed herself between the angry Wolf and the Fleet Admiral, taking up a defensive posture.
Yellow, now somewhat alarmed but choosing to stay cautious, glanced at the Bouzaculan leader. “Kaiser Wolf, what is the matter?”
Sensing that Wolf was still sore over the dispute with Green, Yellow relayed the only information she believed could defuse the tension.
“If this is regarding your dispute, we have identified an arbitrator. Red informs me that they are a newly contacted ally.”
Yellow seriously hoped Wolf would calm down after that. If things got too heated, the Tenno in front of her would not hesitate to severely maim even Wolf if it meant keeping her safe.
Wolf’s gaze softened upon looking at Yellow, though his tone still held a hard edge.
“About bloody fucking time.” He said, turning around, taking out a cigarette and his lighter, popping the cigarette in his mouth, and lighting it. After a moment, he took the cigarette out of his mouth, and let out a puff of smoke.
“Sorry, Yellow… Guess I’ve spent too long on the battlefield.” He said as he turned around, his tone now a bit more even, “I’m on edge, okay… Manifests itself as anger…”
At that, Yellow simply said nothing. It was ridiculously easy to accidentally trigger Wolf’s anger with some of their differing attitudes towards conduct.
She hid a frown as the Tenno standing before her turned to give a single tilt of the head and silently inquire as to the resumption of their training.
Yellow nodded back, and the two resumed their martial practice. As the carefully restrained movements showed, Yellow easily kept in sync with the Trinity Prime.
Going through a complex cadence of wide sweeping strikes and twirls, the Tenno turned to her pupil and gave an approving nod. Yellow bowed respectfully after collapsing her weapon into its portable form. “Thank you for today’s training, master.”
The Tenno bowed back, then sat down opposite the blonde. Noticeably still keeping herself between Yellow and Wolf.
Evidently, this Tenno wasn’t particularly fond of Wolf. While Warframes obviously had no facial expressions to convey opinions, their body language was a sufficient substitute.
Initiative Archival Network 