"A phone chimed. Every room had one; the colony was glutted with nanotech and assembly-complex wares, including robot workers. Kyra sometimes wondered if any commercial enterprise would evolve on Demeter." (p. 437)
Why should it? Means of production an distribution change with technology. Sf writers either project the past into the future or imagine genuinely different futures. Poul Anderson, of course, does both.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I am still skeptical of such notions. "Commerce" is simply the means by which needs and lacks are identified and means found for satisfying them. I can't really see even a ultra high tech economy being able to satisfy all needs so cheaply there remains no demand for needs merchants find means of satisfying.
I do wonder what a society "glutted with nanotech" would be like. Anderson's HARVEST OF STARS books gives us speculation on such issues, some of which might come true.
Ad astra! Sean
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