We Are Already Living in a Post-Scarcity World

While progress may be uneven, it is increasingly clear that many of us are starting to live – at least partially – in a post-scarcity world of unlimited supply. Futurists have talked about this possibility for so long, and it has seemed so far away, that we may be failing to observe its slow but steady arrival. In science fiction, this abundant future is often shown as a place of unlimited physical products, but it’s actually arriving as an era of unlimited digital services and ever cheaper, but not free, products. As a result, the future is sneaking up on us nearly unnoticed. For all human history, scarcity was the condition where we lived. Scarcity of food, shelter, warmth, education – whatever it was, there was never enough of it to go around.