Econ SF

= a project by the EdgeRyders, coordinated by Alberto Cottica, to review science fiction for economic concepts and practices, that are mostly in-line with the p2p and commons vision of the P2P Foundation

URL = https://edgeryders.eu/t/econ-sf-a-selection-of-works-and-authors/8582?u=alberto

"Please contribute to mapping out economic concepts in science fiction. In this wiki, we are going for short entries, focused on the economics surfacing in each sci-fi work."

Examples

Alberto Cottia:

• The Ministry of the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. A near-future fictional account of how human race managed a partial victory against climate change (partial because there are still mass extinctions, mass-lethal heat waves etc.). The novel dedicates a lot of attention to economic aspects, from carbon taxations to the subtraction of essentials like health, education and housing to the logic of the market. A special place is reserved for the largest central banks (Federal Reserve, ECB, Bank of China), who end up being the world’s reluctant saviours. They do so by bailing out struggling banks against equity, which effectively nationalized most commercial banks, and by underwriting a currency that consists in tradeable tokens represented future disbursements against tons of carbon sequestered from the atmosphere. Transactions in this currency are blockchained and de-anonymized, which allows full financial transparency and even a takedown of the tax havens. Eco-terrorism also plays a significant role in driving the transition in the book."

• Walkaway, by Cory Doctorow. Depicts an economy entirely based on DIY production, in the book made cheap at an arbitrarily small scale by advanced 3D printing and biotech. Production is organized like a Wikipedia-style project. The book makes the argument that reputation bookkeeping (kudos, karma etc.) invites gaming of the system, and is an inferior way to organize production to a pure gift economy (given some key abundances). It also makes the case for defection from mainstream society (exit 1 in Hirschman’s terms) as a viable strategy when cheap, open tech is available."