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Comment by rhacker | Hacker News Reader

What we are building is the perfect society for the rule of individualism. Capitalism is the god, greed is the motivation, and not being liable is how we be careful.

There's no way out. Even TNG predicted WWIII entire global population and for humanity to suffer its most embarrassing chapter to get out of it:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_III

There are other modes of life, based on trust of mankind, instead of fear of it. That's the other thing TNG shows - all those people in Starfleet - they aren't being paid to be on that ship. They're trying to show that humanity is capable of post-capitalism. It doesn't have to be this way.

(That's the planet Stallman lives - or at least wants to)

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The ship also cleans itself.

The Federation is a post-scarcity society. They've figured out how to change matter into energy and back again. That does change a lot of things. We don't get to the Federation without solving scarcity.

And while no one is being paid to be on that ship (although that is debatable as there does seem to be some form of currency that individual Starfleet members receive and use), there is competition to be on that ship.

Being on that ship is the compensation for the work. Being one of the few selected to essentially be in this sort of elite class is the privilege.

And even on the ship, there are differences between crew members. The captain's quarters are better than the lower officers. The captain has his own private office just off the bridge.

And being a television show and work of fiction, they get to gloss over a ton of stuff. The acquisition and creation of the materials to build something like the Enterprise is as much a fantasy in the work as is the fact that they can replicate Earth-like gravity in the middle of space.

I get all that - I am just kinda hoping for you know, something between what we have and what we look forward to / dream about. I won't be disappointed if we go further away from 1985 and closer to TNG even if we never reach it.

I think you mean 1984.

And our current system is driving us more towards TNG than 1984.

Things are better now. We're more tolerant. More peaceful. By just about any measure you can take, we're becoming better.

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