----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Koester" <kkoester at email.ers.usda.gov> To: <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 12:09 PM Subject: Re: Culture (was Architecture question for Steve based upon the Sun, the Moon & > 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 Heinlen touches on this in Time Enough for Love and some of his other novels involving the life of Woodrow Wilson Smith. Jeff