European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2019, 5(1):107-123 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.v5i1.144

Comparison of Transitional Theories to Post-Scarcity in Science-Fiction Literature

Michal Mizerák¹

¹ Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic

Scarcity, or limited resources, is the fundamental economic problem the humanity faces continuously. Without it, economics would be meaningless. Science-fiction literature depicts societies where abundance is becoming persistent feature. Humans no longer participate in the production process itself, machines become sentient thanks to artificial intelligence and everyone has access to all goods and services desired. Scarcity as a multiple-born phenomenon, namely originating with labour and land, has been eradicated. Everyone is fully satisfied, exchange is non-existing, the medium of exchange - money - is no longer required. This paper compares some of the most representative economic thoughts in science - fiction genre since 1910s. Main purpose is to identify whether the societies have really achieved post-scarcity or they are only transitional theories, suffocating from still-present scarcity. Results of the paper suggest that even though the societies look like and are presented as they achieved post-scarcity, they are still experiencing scarcity in certain forms and use a medium of exchange to redistribute resources. This implies that these theories rather depict a socialistic utopia than a fully emerged post-scarcity society, even in the most progressive novels scarcity still occurs. Only the Culture series indicate signs of fully developed post-scarcity era.

Keywords: post-scarcity, abundance, science-fiction, scarcity, artificial intelligence, utopia, socialism

JEL classification: O31, P51

Published: August 31, 2019  Show citation