alt Hacker NewsThere was scene in one of my favorite movies, Star Trek: First Contact.
Not to spoil it too much, but there is a scene where a woman from the past (from the 21st century) gets beamed up to the Starship Enterprise. She asks how much it cost. Full dialog below:
> Lily: "How much did this thing cost?"
> Picard: “The economics of the future are somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century.”
> Lily: “No money? You mean you don’t get paid?”
> Picard: “The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.”
The 24th century of the Star Trek universe was unburdened by corporate shareholders. Leaders, like Jean-Luc, did not have the carrot of a multi-million dollar bonus, nor the stick of getting fired for missing quarterly expectations. That's why he could lead with total integrity -- the incentives were different, arguably much better.
I love that movie. I named my VPS Hermes agent “borg.”
Replies
One of my favorite episodes of TNG was Tapestry, to the point that it significantly influenced my life perspective. It emphasizes that even in this sort of idealized world, the things you might want to avoid are still unavoidable. [1]
Though in the same movie Picard claimed with a straight face that humans do not seek revenge in the 24th century either, so perhaps we should take his claims about wealth acquisition as similarly aspirational?
Quark would disagree.
The tenth Rule of Acquisition states
"Greed is eternal."
My issue with the Star Trek utopia dream was always the lack of realism which so many people now with AI/Robotics/Elon praise overlook.
There's limited resources no robot or AI can overcome. If we all have the same basic income (actually why even bother with money if everyone has the same? But whatever) - then who decides who gets the 8 bedroom villa overlooking the ocean in a nice warm sunny climate and who gets the shack behind the wodden old house in ice cold dark forrest?
Who gets the old rusty bicycle and who the new Ferrari?
I won't work if I don't need money, don't want to better myself or others, I know many other people who are just like me.
Unfortunately we're steering more towards the world of Alien, where Picard would be working for Weyland Yutani