Instructor: Liam Malloy
Meeting Time: MWF 11-11:50am
Section: 0001
Please check eCampus for up-to-date meeting times and location.
How do people make decisions when their every material want can be met with a push of a button? How does society organize itself in a post-scarcity world? What are the incentives for people to work hard and contribute if they donÛªt get paid? Would this world be a utopia or a dystopia? These are some of the questions we are going to ask and try to answer in this class as we imagine a world, as in Star Trek, in which food and objects are available at the push of a button and the society no longer uses money (with the occasional exception of gold-pressed latinum). We will explore whether or not we think we are headed in a direction that would lead to this post-scarcity world and what would be the steps along the way. We will read both fiction and non-fiction from authors who have imagined this type of future and explore the firms and people outside the classroom who may give us clues as to how we get there from here.
General education outcomes: A2, C1, GC
3 credits