potential for a totaly diffrent society in todays world

[futurelooking]

i ask a question to anyone interested in voicing an idea.

do you think it is possible to have a minor society in todays world totaly self sufficient, free from an economy and who's sole purpose is to attain knowlage and technology?

 

 

[pioneer]

I suppose it is possible, but to be self sufficient one would need more than scientists and engineers. They will also need a wide range of skilled craftsmen, who could fabricate what you need on site. If a scientist needed a distillation device to conduct new experiments, since you can't buy off the shelf without entering the economy, you would need a skilled glass fabricator on site. To get the raw materials so our glass fabricator can make the glassware, we may need a miner and a materials engineer. The glass fabricator may need to barter skills to get his glass, using a meandering path. The miner may not need his intricate glassware, but might might be able to use some metal tools. So the glass maker has to figure out who to trade glass, for this, for that, until he gets metal tools. Money helps simplify the process.

 

One of the unexpected pitfalls of this society is at the top end. Many of the scientists, doing good science, may not generate anything tangible enough to barter, to get the amount of resources they need to continue on doing what they do. Say you are researching the brain layout of the ape, just to thrown something out there. Who can you trade this to, so in the end, they get the needed computer? Maybe the doctor may find this useful. He will trade a face lift. The electrical engineer gives this to his girlfriend, and gives one of his computers. That scenario starts to push plausibility.

 

The net effect is the society would initially need to be applied and practical science to generate and barter for needed resources. Once they generate more than they need, with the surplus resources would become available for the R&D the future will need.

[Marat]

On the one hand there are subcontained but isolated societies for special purposes within the general society, such as the Shakers, certain strict sects of Amish, Hutterites, Moravian Brethern, etc. On the other hand there are or have been subcontained societies of people dedicated to pursuing knowledge, such as the Royal Society, the Rosicrucians, the Lincei, the Kabbalists, the Bourbaki Society, or the nerds club at MIT. Combining social isolation with pursuit of technology would be difficult, however, since technological progress requires money, and wealth only comes from intensive social interaction.

[Mr Skeptic]

i ask a question to anyone interested in voicing an idea.

do you think it is possible to have a minor society in todays world totaly self sufficient, free from an economy and who's sole purpose is to attain knowlage and technology?

 

No. You need an economy to do pretty much anything, even if it is an isolated economy. Furthermore, were this society to have an isolated economy, they would have to dedicate a lot of their time to their economic affairs. Conversely, such a society would produce valuable knowledge, which if sold to others would mean that they can use that money instead of spending the time to make their own economy.

 

However, various science-based societies have existed as part of regular society, and since Edison's "idea factory" some of these have also become such that they don't need external funding (due to the nature of the information they gain).

 

I would quite like if we spent a lot more time and money on scientific pursuits rather than the various crap we do, but I guess not enough people agree with that.