Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee
"Post-scarcity" doesn't have to mean "post-conflict." There is plenty of fiction set in a post-scarcity world that still manages to find a story-- Ian Bank's Culture novels, for example. And all Star Trek post-TOS, where people work not because they need to so that they can have food, shelter, and medical care, but because they want to.
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As I pointed out elsewhere, concerning the replicator's inability to create anything that would screw up the plot, even under Gene Roddenberry's direct supervision, and more so after his death, many ST stories depended on scarcity.
TNG is one of my favorite shows, yet I still have to work to suspend disbelief each time they contradict that element, which they frequently give lip service to having achieved in the Federation.
Whether it's "Our replicators can't create the needed vaccine" or whether they travel to an outpost or alien world where they have to deal with scarcity in
that culture, it does indeed drive a huge number of the stories.
Even in "Down And Out in the Magic Kingdom" for purposes of the story, there simply wasn't enough Haunted Mansion to go around.