tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post4783278391369726592..comments2023-09-12T06:18:38.552-04:00Comments on The World in the Satin Bag: Adventures in Worldbuilding: How to Ruin it All...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13571452656553970472noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-21734348893349068022012-05-31T21:33:29.172-04:002012-05-31T21:33:29.172-04:00A) I'm talking traditional slavery, not wage s...A) I'm talking traditional slavery, not wage slavery or modern derivations of slave labor. The most modern, technologically advanced civs, therefore, do not have slaves in the traditional sense of the term.<br /><br />B) Because technology changes our relationship to capital, to people, to consumption, and so on. In my scenario, technology has made labor literally valueless, because robots can essentially do it all. And yet, this world owns slaves in the same sense that the European Empires of the last 3 or 4 centuries did: as labor. That was the principle value of slavery at the time. All else was secondary. Slaves built the colonies. They tilled the fields. They provided for Empire. <br /><br />But in my scenario, there is nothing for the slaves to provide. They are slaves being put to work, but there's no rationale for it. It simply doesn't make sense as a world. People don't enslave other people for no reason. There is <i>always</i> a reason.<br /><br />Now for your scenario:<br />If limitless energy is made possible (let's take the aliens out just for the sake of making this not reliant on a sudden intrusion), then you're talking about a cultural development that will see class systems collapse and reform, new interactions with environment, self, others, etc. If slavery exists in this scenario, it needs to exist for a very compelling reason, but not for some old time reason (labor).<br /><br />Does that make sense? Or am I rambling nonsense?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13571452656553970472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813337.post-72654900788101215632012-05-31T21:13:20.945-04:002012-05-31T21:13:20.945-04:00But slavery exists in the most modern, technologic...But slavery exists in the most modern, technologically advanced civilisations we have on Earth. What makes you think that this will be radically different in the future?<br /><br />Let's say an alien race comes along, takes pity on us, and decides to uplift us in one area. Oh, let's say, energy efficiency. Suddenly all forms of energy production we have are ten times as powerful.<br /><br />What happens? Well, based on historical precedent, a whole lot of chaos, some readjustment, a shift in power bases, and then we continue on pretttttty much as we have been. People have all this free time! And energy! What do they do with it? Keep growing! Keep exploring!<br /><br />As we move towards the future, the areas we explore become orders of magnitude larger, smaller, and infinitely more complex. That doesn't mean that we don't try heuristics that have been embedded in us since ancient times.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com