[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.06,0:00:06.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Throughout human history people have tried\Nto create utopia, the perfect society.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.19,0:00:12.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact, America, the American dream, in some\Nsense was based on utopianism.  Why do we
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.07,0:00:17.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have the Shaker movement?  Why did we have\Nthe Quakers?  Why did we have so many different
Dialogue: 0,0:00:17.09,0:00:25.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,kinds of religious movements that fled Europe\Nlooking to create autopia here in the Americas?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:25.08,0:00:32.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, we know the Shakers have disappeared\Nand many of these colonies have also disappeared
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.04,0:00:37.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,only to be found in footnotes in American\Ntextbooks, and the question is why?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.06,0:00:44.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One reason why is scarcity because back then\Nthe industrial revolution was still young
Dialogue: 0,0:00:44.11,0:00:51.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and societies had scarcity.  Scarcity creates\Nconflict and unless you have a way to resolve
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.72,0:00:57.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,conflict, your colony falls apart.  How do\Nyou allocate resources?  Who gets access
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.65,0:01:02.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to food when there is a famine?  Who gets\Nshelter when there is a snowstorm and all
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.04,0:01:08.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the sudden you've eaten up your seed corn? \NThese are questions that faced the early American
Dialogue: 0,0:01:08.01,0:01:13.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,colonists, and that's the reason why we only\Nsee the ghost towns of these utopias.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:13.02,0:01:20.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,However, now we have nanotechnology, and with\Nnanotechnology, perhaps, who knows, maybe
Dialogue: 0,0:01:20.04,0:01:25.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in 100 years, we'll have something called\Nthe replicator.  Now the replicator is something
Dialogue: 0,0:01:25.05,0:01:32.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you see in Star Trek.  It's called the molecular\Nassembler and it takes ordinary raw materials,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.06,0:01:38.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,breaks them up at the atomic level and joins\Nthe joints in different ways to create new
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.02,0:01:45.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,substances.  If you have a molecular assembler,\Nyou can turn, for example, a glass into wood
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.10,0:01:52.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or vice versa.  You would have the power\Nof a magician, in fact, the power of a god,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:52.04,0:01:58.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the ability to literally transform the atoms\Nof one substance into another and we see it
Dialogue: 0,0:01:58.03,0:02:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on Star Trek.\NIt's also the most subversive device of all
Dialogue: 0,0:02:03.00,0:02:11.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because if utopias fail because of scarcity\Nthen what happens when you have infinite abundance?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.08,0:02:17.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What happens when you simply ask and it comes\Nto you?  One of my favorite episodes on Star
Dialogue: 0,0:02:17.91,0:02:22.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Trek is when the Enterprise encounters a\Nspace capsule left over from the 20th century,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:22.41,0:02:28.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the bad 20th century.  People died of all\Nthese horrible diseases, and many people froze
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.41,0:02:34.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,themselves knowing that in the 23rd century\Nor so they'll be thawed out and their diseases
Dialogue: 0,0:02:34.52,0:02:39.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,will be cured.  Well, sure enough, it's the\N23rd century now.  The Enterprise finds
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.08,0:02:44.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a space capsule and begins to revive all these\Npeople and cure them of cancer, cure them
Dialogue: 0,0:02:44.07,0:02:50.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of incurable genetic diseases, and then one\Nof these individuals, however, was a banker.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:50.08,0:02:57.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He is revived and he says to himself, “My\NGod, my gamble worked; I'm alive; I'm in the
Dialogue: 0,0:02:57.07,0:03:03.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,23rd century,” and he said, “Call my\Nstock broker; call my banker; I am rich; I
Dialogue: 0,0:03:03.60,0:03:09.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,am rich; my investments, they have been sitting\Nthere in the bank for centuries; I must be
Dialogue: 0,0:03:09.05,0:03:14.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a quadrillionaire!”  And then the crew\Nof the Enterprise looks at this man and says,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:14.57,0:03:22.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,”What is money; what is a bank; what is\Na stock broker?  We don't have any of these
Dialogue: 0,0:03:22.82,0:03:28.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the 23rd century,” and then they say,\N“If you want something, you simply ask for
Dialogue: 0,0:03:28.52,0:03:36.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it and you get it.”\NNow that's subversive.  That's revolutionary
Dialogue: 0,0:03:36.49,0:03:42.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because if all utopiansocieties vanished\Nbecause of scarcity and conflict, what happens
Dialogue: 0,0:03:42.04,0:03:48.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when there is no scarcity?  What happens\Nwhen you simply ask and you get what you want?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:48.05,0:03:54.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This has enormous philosophical implications. \NFor example, why bother to work?  Why bother
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.08,0:03:58.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to go to work when you simply ask for things\Nand it comes to you?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:58.04,0:04:04.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, some sociologists think that if drugs,\Nfor example, are totally legalized, absolutely
Dialogue: 0,0:04:04.19,0:04:09.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,legalized then maybe three to five percent\Nof the human race will become permanent drug
Dialogue: 0,0:04:09.02,0:04:15.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,addicts.  That's the price for total legalization\Nof drugs.  I don't know, but that's a number
Dialogue: 0,0:04:15.02,0:04:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that people talk about.  What happens when\Nwe have this society based on replicators?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:20.00,0:04:25.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then will we have three to five percent of\Nthe human race become permanent parasites?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.64,0:04:31.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is a possibility.  The whole nature\Nof the human psyche is based around producing
Dialogue: 0,0:04:31.02,0:04:35.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,things, doing something, making a contribution. \NWhat happens when you don't have to do that
Dialogue: 0,0:04:35.10,0:04:41.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anymore?  What happens when there is infinite\Nplenty?  What happens if there is a utopia?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:41.07,0:04:45.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The detractors will say, “Bah-humbug! There
Dialogue: 0,0:04:45.01,0:04:51.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is no replicator; it violates the laws of\Nphysics.”  Well, actually that's not true.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:51.45,0:04:58.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There actually is a nanobot that can replicate,\Nactually take apart molecules and rearrange
Dialogue: 0,0:04:58.09,0:05:04.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,them in fantastic ways.  Mother Nature has\Nalready created it.  It's called the ribosome.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:04.04,0:05:12.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The ribosome can take hamburgers, milk shakes\Nand turn them into a baby in nine months.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:12.03,0:05:21.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is a miracle.  The ribosome takes hamburgers,\NFrench fries, potato chips, breaks apart the
Dialogue: 0,0:05:21.04,0:05:28.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,molecules and reassembles them into DNA. \NMother Nature has created the replicator.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:28.32,0:05:33.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It replicates humans, but what happens when\Nhumans create replicators by which we can
Dialogue: 0,0:05:33.01,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,replicate everything?  This is a very subversive\Nidea.