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Occupation: Bum
GiantRobo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, as of late I've been hanging around my town and walking around because I have jack shit to do. A few weeks ago, I met this guy, has a well groomed facial hair, and looks like your average book-smart hippie dude and is very friendly to anyone. He has a car, a place to stay for now, but no job and never really seemed concerned about getting another one, nor does he ever get concerned about what people think about him.
Today he sees me with a group of my friends and comes over, starts chattin' it up with us all, and when he explained this to them one of them asked if he decided to pretty much become a bum. His response was that he hadn't become a bum, but that what he wants to do is to try to open up people's eyes about everyday stuff that most people don't realize or understand. When I asked him what about the winter, he said he'd go to California.
Now, this made me wonder what if everything just worked, no government, no wealth classes, no shit to worry about at all, but still had all of the technology we had today or could possibly have had. What would you do? That leaves you with your entire life to do as you desire. Obviously a lot of people would say 'travel the world', but what about when you finish that?
If life were like that I don't know what I'd do, I think I'd want to try everything, or as much of it as I could.
tldr - If you didn't have to worry about everyday bullshit and everything just worked, what would you do(and after travelling)?
Today he sees me with a group of my friends and comes over, starts chattin' it up with us all, and when he explained this to them one of them asked if he decided to pretty much become a bum. His response was that he hadn't become a bum, but that what he wants to do is to try to open up people's eyes about everyday stuff that most people don't realize or understand. When I asked him what about the winter, he said he'd go to California.
Now, this made me wonder what if everything just worked, no government, no wealth classes, no shit to worry about at all, but still had all of the technology we had today or could possibly have had. What would you do? That leaves you with your entire life to do as you desire. Obviously a lot of people would say 'travel the world', but what about when you finish that?
If life were like that I don't know what I'd do, I think I'd want to try everything, or as much of it as I could.
tldr - If you didn't have to worry about everyday bullshit and everything just worked, what would you do(and after travelling)?
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Also, this dude probably has rich parents that give him money for car taxes/gas/food.
shorthand for bum.
I was in a similar situation about a year-and-a-half-ago, and found that my interests consisted of drinking with friends sometimes, but mostly doing drugs, playing games and browsing these forums. Given the opportunity to do nothing, many people will do just that.
You mean like what if everything was run by machines?
People would probably get bored, because not everyone hates what they do.
Well, I'd want to design shit. Which really doesn't work in a society where things 'just work' since everything's apparently already been taken care of to a large extent and the void which design is intended to fill would not exist. So I'd probably go semi-nuts and just say fuck it, then hit the library. Also, be all :winky:. If you know what I mean.
You could always design better machines I guess, but wouldn't you want to do anything else?
And a bunch of nano-bots that I can control with my mind to form different objects and move stuff in a way similar to telekinesis.
Alternatively, travel a lot and write. And maybe do science.
Politics doesn't really work well without governments nor would political commentary, and while I love history I wouldn't really feel compelled to do anything with it beyond just read up. So...pretty much this would be a dystopia for me, except that I like to read and watch movies.
I answered that already.
Jacking off, feedbag, lesbian oil wrestling.
Every person that doesn't try to do anything with their lives is another person you don't have to compete with in the global economy.
Not if they happen to eat trash or get killed in a crazy adventure to live in Alaska.
Course it wouldn't be exactly considered a sustainable life, because you would be dependent on the urban landscape, but still.
What if you lived as a mountain man?
Like those guys in Deliverance.
What if they wander across the country planting trees?
I wonder how many trees it would take to cover the cost of an unpaid trip to the ER.
Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?
On the black screen
I imagine that like everyone else here I'd be traveling the world with friends and writing a novel.. The real question is 'what about all the people who don't have anything to devote their life to?" I imagine that if no-one had to work there'd be an epidemic of ennui among people who didn't take to the arts, or science, or sport, or whatever. This also raises the question; if no-one has to work, how many lesbians are going to be filmed oil-wrestling for free? Can you say 'worldwide pornography drought?'
Like I said, dystopia.
I'm essentially in agreement that a lot of people would probably devote themselves to the arts, but I think the practical result of post-scarcity would be our civilization going into a kind of rampant expansionism simply because people need something to do.
Some people would probably just be content to do occupying nothings, I imagine other people (like myself) would be engaged in efforts to make all those elaborate over the top megascience and construction ideas we have in threads from time to time reality. For example, moonbases and undersea cities.
Which ironically, would essentially be people using post-scarcity to go find situations where it existed, the difference of course being the ability to choose whether you are subject to it or not.
It would be a glorious week of boredom. Then I'd kill myself. I'd imagine it would go something like this;
"You don't need to strain yourself to survive anymore."
So, eh, I have nothing to distract myself from myself?
"No."
Cue Logout
Without struggle there is no reason for us to advance ourselves.
Also what do you imply by 'distract myself from myself?'. Are you bored by your own thoughts?
And my own thoughts, well, they try to kill me.
I'm not good at making things up for myself to do, so I'd spend my life doing nothing, miserable the entire time.
Good.
To bring some Geek to this... Gene Rodenbury's STARTREK universe...
People dont join Starfleet for money or salary... they join it to expand their mental horizons as well as scientific horizons.
Others join Vulcan think tanks / focus groups and persue philosophy etc.
Myself? If money wasnt a concern, I would go back to University, maybe persue a doctorate in some scientific or engineering field.
MWO: Adamski
So you would willing recreate what led to the birth of a dark sadistic god?
Like we used to have in the good old days (read industrial revolution era) before it became required that the Government gave you permission to experiment on stuff (else you get carted off as potential terrorist whacko).
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