"Manu Saadia has managed to show us one more reason, perhaps the most compelling one of all, why we all need the world of Star Trek to one day become the world we live in." — Chris Black, Writer and Co-Executive Producer, Star Trek: Enterprise What would the world look like if everybody had everything they wanted or needed? Trekonomics, the premier book in financial journalist Felix Salmon's imprint PiperText, approaches scarcity economics by coming at it backwards — through thinking about a universe where scarcity does not exist. Delving deep into the details and intricacies of 24th century society, Trekonomics explores post-scarcity and whether we, as humans, are equipped for it. What are the prospects of automation and artificial intelligence? Is there really no money in Star Trek? Is Trekonomics at all possible?
Five years ago after its original publication on Medium: The Economics of Star Trek: The Proto-Post-Scarcity Society is finally available in book form, expanded and annotated.When originally published, The Economics of Star Trek garnered over a half a million reads, and was featured twice on the home page of Reddit, in Slate, Bloomberg, Boing Boing, Hacker Monthly, and more. It was a crazy time. In this fifth-anniversary edition, the original essay appears as-is, with extensive footnotes adding new new information, challenging some of the original suppositions, and expanding upon certain points. There are a lot of them. Additionally, there are six new essays regarding Trek and Artificial Intelligence, Bitcoin, Universal Basic Income and the new Trek franchises in film and television, as well as a retrospective essay looking back on the past five years since the original publication.Finally, the book includes an all new foreword from Manu Saadia, author of Trekonomics, which is the other major publication on the topic.
How to get more innovation and more equality. Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades—in such areas as artificial intelligence, genetics, and materials—have benefited society collectively and rewarded innovators handsomely: we get cool smartphones and technology moguls become billionaires. This contributes to a growing wealth gap; in the United States; the wealth controlled by the top 0.1 percent of households equals that of the bottom ninety percent. Is this the inevitable cost of an innovation-driven economy? Economist Joshua Gans and policy maker Andrew Leigh make the case that pursuing innovation does not mean giving up on equality—precisely the opposite. In this book, they outline ways that society can become both more entrepreneurial and more egalitarian. All innovation entails uncertainty; there's no way to predict which new technologies will catch on. Therefore, Gans and Leigh argue, rather than betting on the future of particular professions, we should consider policies that embrace uncertainty and protect people from unfavorable outcomes. To this end, they suggest policies that promote both innovation and equality. If we encourage innovation in the right way, our future can look more like the cheerful techno-utopia of Star Trek than the dark techno-dystopia of The Terminator.
When a mysterious assassination threatens the peace process the U.S.S Enterprise is overseeing in a distant solar system, Captain James T. Kirk suspects Lenore Karidian, who tried to kill him twenty years earlier.
The Dismal Science. The Worldly Philosophy. The Science of Scarcity. Most people think economics is one of the most challenging and complex fields of study. But with this book, it doesn't have to be! You will learn how the U.S. economy works in unbiased, easy-to-understand language. And you can learn it without the complex equations, arcane graphs, and technical jargon you'll find in most economic texts. David A. Mayer and Melanie E. Fox explain: Why and how we trade How the government intervenes in markets Unemployment and inflation Supply and demand Competitive, financial, and foreign exchange markets How the economy is measured You will also learn about the causes and fallout of the recent recession and how global climate change may transform the way our economy operates. Most important, with this introduction, you'll learn how our complex and dynamic economy affects the way we actually live our lives.
The Manhattan skyline is one of the great wonders of the modern world. But how and why did it form? Much has been written about the city's architecture and its general history, but little work has explored the economic forces that created the skyline. In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr chronicles the economic history of the Manhattan skyline. In the process, he debunks some widely held misconceptions about the city's history. Starting with Manhattan's natural and geological history, Barr moves on to how these formations influenced early land use and the development of neighborhoods, including the dense tenement neighborhoods of Five Points and the Lower East Side, and how these early decisions eventually impacted the location of skyscrapers built during the Skyscraper Revolution at the end of the 19th century. Barr then explores the economic history of skyscrapers and the skyline, investigating the reasons for their heights, frequencies, locations, and shapes. He discusses why skyscrapers emerged downtown and why they appeared three miles to the north in midtown-but not in between the two areas. Contrary to popular belief, this was not due to the depths of Manhattan's bedrock, nor the presence of Grand Central Station. Rather, midtown's emergence was a response to the economic and demographic forces that were taking place north of 14th Street after the Civil War. Building the Skyline also presents the first rigorous investigation of the causes of the building boom during the Roaring Twenties. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the boom was largely a rational response to the economic growth of the nation and city. The last chapter investigates the value of Manhattan Island and the relationship between skyscrapers and land prices. Finally, an Epilogue offers policy recommendations for a resilient and robust future skyline.
When the Ferengi plan to enslave the people of Megara and use them to destroy the Federation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise must try to convert a duplicitous ambassador to the planet to good. Original.
For Trekkies everywhere, a fascinating look at the philosophy of Star Trek, from Kirk and Spock to Janeway and Seven of Nine For four decades, Star Trek has been the obsession of millions of fans. But real Trekkies know that the show is more than just riveting entertainment. Its complex moral dilemmas present a view of the future that holds important truths for us in the present. Drawing on episodes from all four Star Trek generations, this unique book explores the ethics of the series in relation to the theories of the world's great philosophers. Questions about good and evil, right and wrong, power and corruption are discussed in language that,is both readable and compelling as the authors show, how the program has evolved over the years to address society's changing values. For this century and beyond, The Ethics of "Star Trek" is an intriguing look at a brilliantly imagined-world and what it can teach us about how to live.
The depiction of computers on the various "Star Trek" series has ranged from lame to breathtakingly imaginative. This book covers the gamut, and makes lucid and entertaining comparison of these fictional computers with those that now exist or are likely to inhabit our future. Throughout its history, "Star Trek" has been an accurate reflection of contemporary ideas about computers and their role in our lives. Affectionately but without illusions, The Computers of Star Trek shows how those ideas compare with what we now know we can and will do with computers.
