58
votes
Accepted
Are stainless steel railway tracks worth it?
Stainless steel is about four to five times more expensive than ordinary steel. This means that even in a perfect world where companies or States could plan for a time horizon of a century or more for ...
- 86k
54
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
Anthropology.
There would be intense scientific interest in watching a medieval society evolve. Human knowledge and understanding of such societies being limited to the lens of history and various ...
- 15.5k
54
votes
Accepted
Will disallowing inheritance reduce corruption?
Trivial Loophole
Say, People can't inherit property or money to their family. Once a person dies and all his dependents are above 18 years all his assets go to the government which gets re-...
- 30.4k
52
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
Comparative advantage would be stretched to the breaking point ...
The concept of comparative advantage explains why trade makes sense even if the more advanced civilizazion is better at everything.
...
- 112k
44
votes
Accepted
How soon after first contact could an advanced civilization make large financial transactions on Earth?
As quickly as trades can be made.
The aliens want to buy a block of Manhattan. The owners of that block would like, oh, a couple billion dollars or whatever.
How can the aliens get a couple billion ...
- 7,652
41
votes
Are there ethical ways to profit from uplifting?
Treat Them As Employees!
This is simple: treat them as employees in a business. Sure, they may have different desires and needs than others, but uplifting a species produces employees with a very ...
- 32.2k
40
votes
Accepted
How would you get a medieval economy to accept fiat currency?
Limited purposes at first.
Medieval societies did accept and use 'paper money' for specific purposes. In a way, there is a step between specie and fiat currency. Say that first, you had silver. At the ...
- 112k
32
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
They're trading for things that are still valued in an advanced society.
Obvious things are fur, spices, foods, wines, timber, wool, gemstones like amber or opals, pearls, crafted objects such as art, ...
- 45.9k
26
votes
Accepted
How will corporations ensure return on investment for funding slower than light colonization efforts?
I feel like you're starting from the wrong premises. You've already established that colonies are impractical to monetize in a reasonable timescale, and due to the costs of interstellar travel it isn'...
- 72.9k
26
votes
Accepted
What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
Small-scale harvesting is more art than science.
Your flow of PhoNE is variable and difficult to predict. It changes constantly.
Large-scale operations just throw a huge "net" and sell ...
- 80k
25
votes
Will disallowing inheritance reduce corruption?
This is massively easy to corrupt.
There are several major assumptions in this setup, but the primary issue is assuming that the government isn't corrupt. How do you define "redistributed"? ...
- 4,871
25
votes
Are stainless steel railway tracks worth it?
Stainless steel is TERRIBLE for train tracks. Especially if you are trying to use the most rust resistant grades.
Expensive to produce
Difficult to fabricate
Stainless is difficult to machine compared ...
- 10.5k
23
votes
How soon after first contact could an advanced civilization make large financial transactions on Earth?
The question can be rephrased:
How do you create an exchange rate with gods?
You can't.
You're at the level of a parent trading with a toddler. The toddler has nothing to trade with. The parent might ...
- 10.2k
22
votes
How will corporations ensure return on investment for funding slower than light colonization efforts?
Your investors are artificial intelligences.
They invest in lots of things. They are very rich. They are immortal. Some of their investment decisions are obvious. Others are opaque and some seem ...
- 304k
21
votes
How does a government that uses undead labor avoid perverse incentives?
The Labor of the Dead is the Inheritance of the Living
The profit (or at least the majority of it) from the bodies goes to the surviving relatives. This of course leads to a certain amount of inimical ...
- 7,280
21
votes
Accepted
How does a government that uses undead labor avoid perverse incentives?
Legislation mandating the undead opt-in before death.
It's like an organ donor card on steroids. Make it illegal to use the bodies unless people signed legal documentation allowing their bodies to be ...
- 856
19
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
They are playing the long game
They have a several century long plan to groom this civilization from medieval to interstellar age in order to become a powerful ally to them. The beneficial trading is ...
- 48.3k
19
votes
How would perpetual motion technology (and "free" energy) affect poverty?
Cynically, it will likely not affect them at all at this stage of the technology. At least based on the standards of living today.
Profits Over People
While large and cumbersome, there is still the ...
- 4,953
18
votes
Are there ethical ways to profit from uplifting?
It solves the labor shortage
I have an orchard with a genetically enhanced fruit that is very valuable, however, since it's the far future, no one wants to come work in my orchard. However, there's an ...
- 13.8k
18
votes
Accepted
Are there ethical ways to profit from uplifting?
Mermans
Only one third of the Earth's surface has apartments on it. This generation of Facebook users refuse to live at the bottom of the ocean. They say that's where no air is. Little do they know ...
- 65.6k
18
votes
Implementing a system of "happiness currency" in a transhumanist society as a way to avoid wireheading
Problem #1: Human history
To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a govenment-controlled solution to (or, perhaps more accurately, an external force controlling) addiction. Even when ...
- 117k
18
votes
How would you get a medieval economy to accept fiat currency?
If you want to change the whole economy then it can't be done without also taking over the economy. But if it's just in terms of trading with them then it's just a voucher. Merchants have used these ...
- 24.2k
17
votes
Will disallowing inheritance reduce corruption?
It increases corruption
The only outcome that method has, is that people will sign all their possessions over to any next of kin while they are still alive so that they can inherit the goods. If such ...
- 15.9k
17
votes
What Are the Pitfalls of Using Diamonds as Currency?
Hard to Standardize
Gold can be cut into standard weight chunks known as coins. These can be given stamped shapes to minimize the chance of imposture. Furthermore, gold is gold. Some gold is not ...
- 27.6k
14
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
Sentimental Value
The more primitive civilization can't produce anything better than the spacefaring one can; that's why they want to trade in the first place. However, people do not always buy things ...
- 9,654
13
votes
Are there ethical ways to profit from uplifting?
Let capitalism show you the way.
Your crop of genetically improved trees is great, except here in this bright future, there's only so much demand for them. People only need so many houses. Say, wouldn'...
- 7,652
13
votes
Will disallowing inheritance reduce corruption?
It will affect corruption (but not by much) by making some aspects of it unnecessary. Why cheat when you could simply gift your assets to your children while you are still alive, and preserve your ...
- 3,760
13
votes
Will disallowing inheritance reduce corruption?
It will increase corruption because the thing you suggest is, itself, corruption.
You are proposing a scheme that presupposes that the government owns the citizens and all of their property and assets....
- 4,137
13
votes
How does a government that uses undead labor avoid perverse incentives?
The Zombies degrade over time
Making zombies capable of performing complex set of movement is not only just tedious and complicated, it also carries a set of drawbacks. First, each zombie consumes ...
- 6,466
12
votes
Are there ethical ways to profit from uplifting?
If you uplift them enough, they can become trading partners. If you engage solely in ethical business practices, with full disclosure and choice by the species, then you can engage in trade with them.
...
- 34.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible