Here's an idea.
Minecraft and the MakerBot are ushering
in the post-scarcity economy.
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Even if you're not an indie game nerd,
there's a pretty good chance that you've heard of Minecraft.
Developed by Mojang, Minecraft is
sort of like LEGOs meet The Sims meets "Night of the Living
Dead" with a little splash or "Dwarf Fortress."
If you've never played "Dwarf Fortress,"
go play it right now.
And then come back.
OK, so Minecraft.
It has two modes of play.
The first is called adventure mode, where you just kind
of like, plop down in the middle of nowhere
and left to figure it out.
You can punch trees to get wood.
You can build tools.
You build a house.
You defend it from monsters.
You dig and punch and craft and dig.
And we don't get eaten by monsters.
There's no tidy ending to the game and there's no real goal,
so it's just like real life.
And in keeping with real lifeness, when
you use something it's gone, because resources are limited.
Creative mode, however, is a little different.
There are no monsters, and you can conjure unlimited resources
out of thin air-- like poof, diamond-- all day long.
I'm rich, I tells ya!
I'm rich!
Which means with a little ingenuity, some patience,
and the help of some nifty programs,
you can make whatever you'd like, free of worry.
But more than being an infinite erector set,
Minecraft's creative mode demonstrates
a really interesting theoretical economic concept--
the post-scarcity economy.
In case you haven't read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom"
by Cory Doctorow, I'm about to explain.
Modern economics is built on the idea of scarcity.
If I buy a car, it's mine, and there is now
one less car for sale.
And that car, it costs money, because it's made out
of stuff that's not free, and that it takes work to get
and that we can run out of.
Now ready your brain muscle.
Imagine if that wasn't the case.
Imagine if we could make cars, houses, computers, food,
everything without losing resources.
This seemingly far-fetched situation
is called the post-scarcity economy,
and Minecraft demonstrates it perfectly.
In adventure mode, like in real life, resources are scarce.
In creative mode, everyone is totally free of want.
So what do they do?
They're certainly not going to do work,
like manually chopping down trees or hunting pigs,
because they don't have to.
I mean, you could if you wanted to,
but you'd probably want to spend your time making
giant mansions, huge statutes, the Taj Mahal, roller coasters,
or scale models of Earth.
Now, I know what you're thinking,
because I can read your mind.
There will never be a time where we can just
make whatever we want.
All right, maybe not.
But also, maybe yeah?
Allow me to introduce you to the MakerBot.
It's a little robot that makes stuff.
Let's say you have a 3D model of a creeper.
You just push a button, wait a little while, and then blammo.
You have a creeper, in real life.
Except it's not the one that explodes, don't worry.
Not into creepers?
That's cool.
How about custom jewelry, clothing, historical artifacts,
famous works of art?
Or burritos?
Engineers have sussed out ways to 3D print things
like edible meat, human organs, prosthetic bones, and even
totally new chemical compounds.
And those chemical compounds, they
were printed on a machine that cost only $2,000.
That's about as much as a nice iMac.
No, we're not quite at nano robots or matter
transmogri-thingy-doobers yet.
But the MakerBot and its pals, like the Desktop CNC machine
and the Benchtop laser cutter really
are bringing manufacturing right into your home place spot.
Just maybe not organ manufacturing,
which is probably a good thing.
Add to this the fact that Autodesk
has released a piece of software which
will let you make a 3D scan of any object using your iPhone,
and that websites like Thingiverse
and The Pirate's Bay's physibles database
means that you can share every object you make.
I could literally email you a spoon.
I hope that blows your mind, because it blows mine.
But yes, you're right.
The MakerBot still needs plastic--
which, though plentiful, is a finite resource,
as are the parts that make up the MakerBot.
But it is pretty easy to turn this future frown upside down.
If we think of Minecraft as a kind
of proto post-scarcity caricature
and the maker as a kind of photo--
whatever that machine in the Jetsons was called,
it becomes pretty clear that, for as long as Moore's law
is true, this stuff will only get cheaper, more powerful,
and easier to use.
While it might not happen in my lifetime,
maybe my grandkids will be printing out
functional pianos, edible foods, or life-size models of the USS
Enterprise.
What do you guys think?
What does a post-scarcity economy even look like,
and does the MakerBot play a role?
Let us know in the comments.
And--
There were a lot of really great fanfic thoughts.
Let's see what you guys had to say.
Choomanama asks if a Game of Thrones fanfic
would be less sexual.
[SLOW CLAP]
Probably not.
A couple people point out that the Bible might actually
be the source of the first fanfiction.
I totally agree, and I'm really looking forward
to that zombie Jesus action movie that's
coming out this summer.
Byulmnida offered to write a fanfic about me
and any YouTuber of my choice.
So I thought really long and hard about it,
and I chose Shannon Coffey from "Coffey Chat."
Shannon's here!
So Shannon came over to help us brainstorm some ideas to help
you get started, Byulmnida.
So here they are.
Setting, like wild west?
Yeah, yeah.
Except no guns.
OK.
There's just--
Just guitars?
You know, horses and guitars.
OK.
Maybe these horses are really good musicians.
We're accidentally writing this fanfiction for you.
Yeah, you do the work.
Bank heist.
We steal a bunch of popcorn out of a bank.
The popcorn bank.
One day we wake up, and we're covered in polkadots.
It's a new disease.
We've got to cure it.
I would like to have a pencil-thin moustache.
It's a mystery.
The moustache is the mystery.
What about a romcom, but with no romance?
Just the com, Freddy Krueger style.
I don't look that good in stripes.
But I look great with pizza skin.
Ka-shh, ka-shh, ka-ka-ka-shh!
All right, so there are some ideas to help you get started.
We'll look for something in our email.
The link is right over there.
And for everyone else, if you don't watch "Coffey Chat,"
you should watch it.
Shannon is very funny.
She will beat you up.
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