(no subject)

[tisiphone]

Help me out, Internets. A few years ago I read a short story, I don't remember who it was by but I don't read a lot of short stories so it was probably Connie Willis or Charles Stross. It was about two next-door neighbors who lived in a world where nanotechnology advanced so much that people just made stuff in their garages. One particular point was one guy making oranges, and then recycling the peels into socks or something. Do you remember this story? I need it! (It's a perfect illustration of the problems of an abundance economy.)

Comments

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Obviously not what you're looking for, but an interesting discussion of the economics of Star Trek as a proto-post-scarcity economy:

The Economics of Star Trek (https://medium.com/@RickWebb/the-economics-of-star-trek-29bab88d50) | Medium -- [The Proto-Post Scarcity Economy]

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Ah, excellent. I'd already considered using Star Trek, but it's not really a post-scarcity economy (I'd classify it as a partial abundance economy, where a benevolent, cosmopolitan overclass shows characteristics of post-scarcity, but the planets they land on definitely do not.) I'm starting to think I should have titled this talk "the political economy of science fiction" :)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Obviously not what you're looking for, but an interesting discussion of the economics of Star Trek as a proto-post-scarcity economy:

The Economics of Star Trek | Medium -- [The Proto-Post Scarcity Economy]
https://medium.com/@RickWebb/the-economics-of-star-trek-29bab88d50

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Obviously not what you're looking for, but an interesting discussion of the economics of Star Trek as a proto-post-scarcity economy:

The Economics of Star Trek | Medium -- [The Proto-Post Scarcity Economy]

https: // medium. com/ @RickWebb/the-economics-of-star-trek-29bab88d50

(Sorry about the repeat attempts -- it ain't spam, dangit! First version of the comment's the best.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I don't know the story you're referring to, but I think I've read every Stross and that doesn't sound familiar. Stross' "Rule 34" involved people with personal Makers as an expensive luxury item but not unheard of, like owning a Porsche, and a subplot involved the kind of people who make CONTRABAND in their private Makers, but I don't remember any oranges, and that's a full novel not a short story.

You could ping James Nicoll? He's likelier than most to know what story you're referring to, and if he doesn't know he might ask his followers and they're pretty much a complete encyclopedia of modern SF.

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was't Rule 34 (which I'm not re-reading again anyway - I towed it grumpily around Asia for weeks a few summers ago, reading it but being annoyed at how irritating it was, until my travelling companion left it in a Japanese train station toilet right before I'd started the last chapter.)