Steve Brust wrote: >Once Man has achieved a sufficient level of culture (ie, technology) so >that conflict with nature is no longer pressing (or, to be precise, when >we can produce plenty for everyone) the opportunity exists for several >things to happen: An end to class conflict; an end to conflict between >societies, and discussions of how we're really part of nature and >shouldn't consider ourselves in conflict with it. > >Recommended reading: _Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the >State_ by Frederich Engels. > > Yes, this has interested me for some time. While I do not believe with Marx that all is economics, clearly it shapes our ends more strongly than many other things one might name. Banks' Culture, Stephenson's =The Diamond Age=, & a few other works touch on this, but I don't think SF as a whole has explored thoroughly how society might organize itself if material scarcity disappeared, by means of a Universal Pantograph, let us say. (With apologies to Panshin.) Snarkhunter