Re: Ran Prieur Watch
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:18 pm
Ran writes:
March 5. Another quote from a book I'm reading, Morris Berman's Wandering God:
| What Woodburn discovered in Tanzania was that the Hadza do not experience any severe
| food shortages and that they are unconcerned about the future. Although all Hadza
| consider themselves to be kin, they have few obligations to each other and are not bound
| by commitments. Everyone has direct access to valued assets, and this provides security
| for all. Dependency, let alone hierarchy, is not part of the Hadza way of life. What is perhaps
| the popular image of hunter-gatherer societies -- close, warm, communities that are
| simultaneously very supportive and very conformist/restrictive -- may be off the mark.
| Instead, what we often find is a great deal of autonomy and independence.
I haven't written about this stuff in a while, but my position hasn't changed. Just as you need an empty container to carry water, the foundation of all freedom is the freedom to do nothing. The fact that this has been achieved by hunter-gatherers, and not by modernity, should not discourage us from technological ambitions.
Here's a fun question. How far can we go with an all-volunteer economy? Can we go to space? There would be plenty of volunteers to build the rockets, not so many to mine the ore.
Related, a classic essay, The Economics of Star Trek.