Board Thread:Fiction Universe Discussion/@comment-4242472-20160617203303/@comment-25309944-20160618003623

I'm not sure there's anything about the current 'meta' which is unbalanced or needs tweaking. However, I wasn't there for that conversation so new concerns might have been brought up which I wasn't aware of.

In past discussions between Ghelae, Wormy, and myself, the consensus appears to be that post-scarcity and capitalist models of production in the fictionverse are both perfectly valid, and very different methods of organizing a society. Neither are inevitable, but both are capable of competing with each other in terms of material output. Here's a brief summary of what Ghelae and I figured out during our conversations:
 * Creating a Delphan-style post-scarcity society is difficult and involves breaking just about every incentive system that makes the production of things, knowledge, technology, services, infrastructure, etc possible within the society. Post-scarcity societies, unlike capitalist societies, are maintained through massive technological infrastructure which is capable of providing for the existing society through its harnessing of until natural sources of energy, but runs into trouble when it is necessary to grow, adapt, or compete efficiently. Its uses of technology will tend to be large and wasteful, over-reliant on enormous sources of power, though capable of bringing to bear untold amounts of force. The production of further technology, unless faced with a crisis, is unnecessary (because the society is able to cater to all of its wants with existing energy outputs) and even impractical due to the absence of the incentive systems and the infrastructure necessary in the production of knowledge. Life is slow, steady, unchanging, and depending on how the society is constructed, it can be a utopia or a dystopia. Post-scarcity societies are unlikely to go to war due to their needs being fulfilled.
 * The capitalist society is essentially a continuation of today's productive infrastructure, involving complex relations between employees and capitalists, between individuals and the means of production, between different types of knowledge and the means to produce them, between public and private property, between the state, its people, and the flow of capital. The infrastructure involved in the production of anything is complex, and involves the cheapest possible solution due to competition and the sheer amount of people looking to maximize their self-interest within a given market. Goods, people, and capital are shuttled every which way in a frenzy of activity, with resources hurtling to their most efficient possible use by the self-selecting properties of the market. The excesses of the market (however defined) may or may not be hindered or helped by the existence of a state to regulate or enable its activities. Knowledge, whether it takes the form of short-term innovations in existing technology or the long-term search for new ways of understanding the world, new patterns, and new technologies, also involves a multiplicity of infrastructures and incentive systems in the private sector, in academia, and in education. All of these elements form interlocking pieces which, when taken together, create a society which is dynamic, is always looking to expand, and takes on a life of its own without requiring massive central planning infrastructure to keep running. However, such a society also poses a host of different challenges to its leaders (too many to list).

The post-scarcity society runs its sheer ability to bring to bear in bulk enormous amounts of energy, but struggles with efficiency and adaptability. The capitalist society is able to compete due to its sheer efficiency and the fact that growth is its basic state of being, but does not have access to raw energy on the same scale. Instead, the capitalist society draws upon energy, raw materials, resources, and knowledge from a million different places, wherever it is cheapest at that particular moment, and puts it to work.

This, to me, was a fair balance between two different systems which inhabit the fictionverse, and which have come into conflict on such occasions as the Great Xonexian Schism. I am very happy with the balance which was achieved in that fiction, and would recommend it as an example for a successful meta regarding post-scarcity. Of course, it is up to the individual authors whether they want to go this route or not.