There’s a difference between “more than I thought I could get” and “as much as I want”, though.
Eugene seems to think that someone from the past would call our society post-scarcity because it provides more of some things than he hopes he would get, rather than as much as he could possibly want. I think that given the definition of a post-scarcity society as one where you can get as much of something as you want, someone from the past would not consider our society to be a post-scarcity society, since it’s very clear that some things—even things that he himself wants—are in limited supply.
There’s a difference between “more than I thought I could get” and “as much as I want”, though.
My point is that the concept of “post-scarcity” is meaningless. It only seems meaningful because our intuitions conflate the two, or rather the amount of something someone wants at any given time is just a little more than what he thinks he can get. Of course, once the amount he thinks he can get changes, the amount he wants will also change, but at the time the amount he wanted really was that small.
There’s a difference between “more than I thought I could get” and “as much as I want”, though.
Eugene seems to think that someone from the past would call our society post-scarcity because it provides more of some things than he hopes he would get, rather than as much as he could possibly want. I think that given the definition of a post-scarcity society as one where you can get as much of something as you want, someone from the past would not consider our society to be a post-scarcity society, since it’s very clear that some things—even things that he himself wants—are in limited supply.
My point is that the concept of “post-scarcity” is meaningless. It only seems meaningful because our intuitions conflate the two, or rather the amount of something someone wants at any given time is just a little more than what he thinks he can get. Of course, once the amount he thinks he can get changes, the amount he wants will also change, but at the time the amount he wanted really was that small.
I don’t believe that. People even before modern times talked about living forever.