Humanity as a whole is about resources, and the 2 most important ones are

1. Energy
Assuming we have no limit on the amount of energy available, then most of the other stuff (food, water... etc) can be sourced easily. Desalination of ocean water is extremely energy intensive as well as newer technological-based farming.

2. Labor
The basic is human, and then animals and machines that expand our productivity by multifold.

Now, with these things considered, I think we are on the blink of a fundamental change in society (something that's going to happen in our lifetime).

We are coming up with newer and better (cleaner) and cheaper ways to generate energy. Be it solar, nuclear or even fusion technologies are achieving efficiency and scales that would eventually push down the price of energy to a level never imaginable.

With humanoid robots getting closer and closer to reality instead of something out of a sci-fi movie, combined with an abundance of energy, we will see a society completely different than what we know of. Social hierarchy has always been defined by the amount of resources (be it money or power) one has. But when resources are value so cheaply, how do you continue to define social hierarchy?

Don't give me that crap that everyone is equal and social hierarchy is unnecessary. The society as we know it works because social hierarchy exists. Without it, it's like the wild wild west where there is no boundaries. Why should I listen to authorities such as gov't or my boss at work and whatever when they hold as many resources as I do?

It's going to be a question that gov't around the world will have to answer within the next 50yrs.

There's the Star Trek theory too... replicators... creating material things... that gets rid of the need for production and money and purchasing of things and everyone has access to the same foods or products.

That's a little less bleak of a perspective anyway -- a society where nobody needs to fight each other or play off each other to have things.

Canucks going to make it to the stanley cup finals and lose game 7 again.

^go rangers!!! (94 throwback)

Wounds can still be opened 28 years later :QQ:

hahahah i was rooting for the rangers back in 94 because i was a huge oilers fan and basically that entire rangers lineup was all ex oilers.

i read the news some scientists just brought back to life organs in a dead pig, so i'm betting on zombie apocalypse...which one.... though...

i'm going with evil umbrella corp t-virus res evil style

When everyone was poor people tried to one-up each other with the size of their families or livestock they own
When people become middle class they did it with consumer goods, houses, cars
When everyone around you is sufficiently rich, it becomes about experiential stuff - vacations, restaurants, other influencer crap, etc.

Society will find another way to stratify itself in a post-scarcity world. It's pretty much an open dirty secret if you watch enough Star Trek.

"Oh you're a de-salinization tech at the bottom of the Pacific? Well I just graduated from Starfleet Academy and am being posted to the USS Enterprise on mission to save the galaxy. Have fun being stuck on Earth....chump!"

Yea there will never be a time when there isn’t some BS to one up another person lol

Even for me, I really couldn’t care less about an expensive watch, etc. I feel like I’m very secure financially, two good incomes etc I could buy stupid shit if I wanted to. As a kid my parents paid for my braces but I never wore my retainer and my teeth got crooked. As I became more financially secure I more and more associated having bad teeth with being poor. So I dumped a bunch of money into my orthodontist, and after this is done I’ll get the most obnoxious whitening you can get.

Even little shit like that will always grind on others as a status symbol

Asteroid (happened before but the Earth will rebuild itself)

Black Death 2.0 (Not necessarily BD but I'm thinking of a highly infectious, multi-mutated superbug that will sweep the densely populated metropolisisisis)

But we all know when the world ends:

Skeeter Davis sang it best.

The food shortage idea is pretty interesting.

https://mypatriotsupply.com/s/files/...em-format=avif

There's talk about how we are eating last years crops now and that next year we will see a shortage on food due to war and shit climate.

Tin foil hat theorists suggest that China has been hoarding a shit ton of grain because of the projected shortage.