5 Comments

Can you replicate a replicator? And even if you could, wouldn't it just be a smaller one? I guess the bigger the replicator gets, the more valuable it is.

Wait! That's it! Just use replicators as currency! I'll work for sixteen duck-sized replicators an hour!

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May 12, 2023Liked by Frank J. Fleming

This... is just a ploy to keep me subscribed to your stuff, huh? 🤔

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May 11, 2023Liked by Frank J. Fleming

Yeah, I never liked Star Trek. That future was too utopian. There was definitely something going on behind the scenes there.

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May 9, 2023Liked by Frank J. Fleming

To be fair, if we actually had replicators and the ability for travel to distant planets with no concern over trivialities like fuel, socialism would be quite good. The genius of capitalism and money is that it allows for resources to be allocated to their most valuable uses. It does this by rewarding those who improve resource allocation.

If goods can be created out of thin air with no use of resources - as in the Star Trek replicators - then there really is no need for capitalism because there is no need to allocate resources. If resources were not scarce and everyone could use them freely without ever using them up then the capitalist model really would be outdated.

Now all we have to do is to repeal the laws of physics to allow unlimited goods to be created out of thin air without using any limited resources and voila, socialism will finally work!

Star Trek never had an issue with ignoring the laws of physics in all sorts of ways including Warp speed and time travel. I guess that is what makes it Science Fiction. It is useful in bringing to light exactly what circumstances would be needed to make a socialist reality one in which we would want to live.

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May 9, 2023Liked by Frank J. Fleming

It’s funny that the original series was so outspoken against communism/socialism and collectivism (see: “Return of the Archons”, “The Omega Glory”, “This Side of Paradise”, “Patterns of Force”), and “Trouble with Tribbles” plus “Mudd’s Women” showed that capitalism was still alive and well. It wasn’t until Roddenberry’s “revision” of the future (after the original series had ended) that this idea of space socialism started creeping in. But, as you’ve shown, it doesn’t really work.

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