In a world were material things are essentially free or close to it

[Deleted]

What would you design? What would people who have everything want?

I would entirely focus on education and science. I would learn as much as possible.

Well, and play as many VR games in AI created universes as possible

[Vash The Stampede]

Everything free would mean no more motivation and makes people depressed to a point where humanity would collapse.

Everything free is essentially Star Trek. Though in real life people do things for free all the time. Look up Linux and other such open source projects. Assuming that all trivial jobs are taken, and not creative ones like designing and entertainment, humanity would be more creative than ever before. Though I'm not saying there won't be depressed people, but there's a different between a person who abuses oxycodone cause they work at a dead end job, vs someone who doesn't work and can't find meaning in their life.

[Medusa Cascade]

The future you desire is absolute madness, but intriguing.

That's just phase one

[Lex Icon]

kinda lived it already.. when i was younger i played in bands and made artwork and logos and stuff for other bands.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Everything free would mean no more motivation and makes people depressed to a point where humanity would collapse.

No this is a lie. People would just not be controlled by others who think they know what is best for everyone else, and people would need to be inspired or moved to contribute because they want to. Which is a much better driving force.

[Kaganfindel]

Everything free would mean no more motivation and makes people depressed to a point where humanity would collapse.

I could easily, happily keep myself productively engaged for the rest of my life without having to pursue wealth or security. There are enough people like me to preserve humanity's dominance of the planet.

[Deleted]

What would you design? What would people who have everything want?

Well if things are cheap to produce... why would anyone pay you more than they'd have to? I guess peoples income would shrink up along with the cost of items.

But what would people want? Land of course. You can't mass produce that and there would be at least 20bil people by then. I think real estate business would be highly profitable, I'd probably do that.

[Yvaelle]

Everything free would mean no more motivation and makes people depressed to a point where humanity would collapse.

That's why all billionaires kill themselves.

Once you've jetski'd out of an airplane while getting a blowjob from a supermodel, life is just too depressing to continue.

Edit: Oh no wait, that's bullshit - wanting something we cannot have is not the sole motivator of all human activity.

[d00mGuArD]

What would you design? What would people who have everything want?

Experiences (real or virtual)
People will always want to be what they can't be VR experiences could do that
Adventures, travels and imaginary scenarios. They could experience a VR where they live as super rich or in poverty, or are soldiers, or on different planet, or Indianna Jones, etc. The list is endless

[33kamous3]

Something that advances human knowledge or general well-being (medical technology perhaps). Maybe art/cultural stuff. I don't really see a problem being bored or anything like that, as there's always the potential for self-enrichment and helping others.

OP is basically the premise of the Star Trek utopia, so I'll recommend an episode that explores that issue. The final episode of the first season of The Next Generation is called "The Neutral Zone" and basically the Enterprise stumbles across a long-forgotten cryogenic storage vessel that contains three revive-able bodies of humans from the late 20th century. Each of the three people were frozen as they died from ailments that are easily curable in the 24th century.

One is a super-wealthy investment magnate who had died of foreseeable stress-related heart failure and had prepared a plan to be frozen and then revived and cured, with his wealth delineated in super-long-term investments and trust funds so that he could pick up where he left off and continue to accrue wealth and power. He has a great deal of trouble coping with the fact that not only is everything he had now gone, but also that in his new setting his very concept of wealth and power is meaningless.

The second is a star country/rock musician who died young of liver failure (and pretty much every other major organ) due to a short life of hard living and alcohol and drug abuse. He had himself frozen because, what the heck, might as well keep the party going if you can. 24th century medicine fixes all of his self-inflicted damage and, unfazed, he immediately starts looking for drinks and women.

The third is a housewife/soccermom who had died in an accident and was preserved without her knowledge, probably by her grieving husband. She is in shock and utterly confused by her new surroundings, and having to come to terms with the fact that everyone she's ever known has now been dead for several hundred years. She decides to cope by attempting to locate and connect with her descendants and learning what became of her family.

[Dezerte]

We would be more free. Free to to pursue our hobbies without fearing for our livelihoods. Less "making money" and more "making life meaningful".

[Vash The Stampede]

Another thought experiment would be what if people who did work, did so not because they need money but to better the world? Rather than quantity, we focused on quality because everyone has access to everything for free. Instead of designing products with planned obsolescence, we could make products last, or make products that can be upgraded. Make products that are modular so they can be upgraded and don't produce a lot of E-Waste. Go to the grocery store with a refillable container for juice or other beverages, rather than a container with a special logo on it that you throw away. Use materials that don't rust or corrode over time.

[Masark]

Though in real life people do things for free all the time. Look up Linux and other such open source projects.

Slight nitpick - most of Linux development these days is done by people paid to do so by various companies, Intel and Red Hat being big ones.

But the idea still applies to open source in general.

[GrinningMan]

People that have never been in a situation where money was no issue for survival talk about what life would be like if money were no issue.


lol.

It's not glamorous. It's not fun. Even if you got into self improvement, there are still days where your body is too sore to do much and you are left to your own devices.

You know nothing, Champion of MMO.

[Vash The Stampede]

Slight nitpick - most of Linux development these days is done by people paid to do so by various companies, Intel and Red Hat being big ones.

But the idea still applies to open source in general.

Depends where you look. AMD for example certainly pays developers to work on their driver code, but Nvidia doesn't. So the Nvidia drivers are entirely freely done. But Linux started off as free and still going on as free. Even if that weren't the case Android has a huge amount of people working on porting it over to devices. CyanogenMod was free before it became a for profit, and now Lineage OS took over where once again its free.

Then there's Toby Fox who made Undertale, but before that he made plenty of free games. Counter Strike was free before Valve bought them as was many games before. The point is lots of projects started off as free, but capitalism takes it and pushes it forward as people can now work and do what they love rather than work as a cashier at McDonalds. And while projects like AMD drivers, CaynogenMod, and Undertale might have been better off with money involved, it might be the reason why some of those products got canned. No money no support and people have to use their time to make money. Lots of YouTubers who once made great animation videos had to quit because it wasn't going to put food on the table. Even though making those animations was their passion to begin with.

Either way, to say that everything free would stop people from doing things is absurd or ignorant. It'll certainly stop people from doing tedious work.

[Jeezy911]

In 200 years there will be no internet, just a neural connection to everything. So as far as ordering something, I think it and a robot delivers it in 15 minutes. A PS11 would also just be linked in to the Neural network, the hardware would be offsite somewhere on a server, you just need to download to your brain.

[Z-Man]

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow looks at part of this. With AI software and universal 3D printers, people can just walk away from regular society and do what they want. You don't really need jobs and money when you can get anything you need from a replicator.

[LoLcano]

I would prly write books , doesn't matter if u have everything , reading a new book is always exciting and unique . and i would spend my time traveling around the world meeting new people ,trying new things, in a world where everything is cheap i awesome so is travelling .

[ItachiZaku]

Very, very optimistic to think we'll be around in 100-200 years.

[primalmatter]

I think most of the population would be suicidal or depressed. Humanity needs to be challenged otherwise we start to decay. The most savage cultures tend to have the... happy is the wrong word.. fulfilled people?

Perhaps we could find some kind a synthetic substitute like video games or hobbies but most people would not handle a world where everything was free well.