Chapter 2: The Ascent
Read the full chapter in the Unscarcity book.
Chapter 2 tackles the crisis of meaning in an abundant world. When survival is solved, what drives human purpose? The chapter examines historical experiments with abundance and proposes Impact as a decaying currency of contribution.
Questions Addressed
- What happens to creatures built for struggle when the struggle stops?
- What can we learn from the collapse of Universe 25 (the mouse utopia)?
- How did the Maya run dual economies separating survival from status?
- What replaces money as a motivator when prices collapse toward zero?
- How do you prevent the “beautiful ones” phenomenon in human society?
Related Topics
- Purpose Beyond Survival — Psychology of striving without paycheck panic
- Infinite Games — Competing to keep playing, not to win and stop
- Impact — The non-transferable, decaying currency of contribution
- Impact Decay Curves — Standing that must be re-earned, not hoarded
- Universe 25 — The mouse utopia warning
- Freedom Is Reciprocal — Why obligation grows with capability
- Experience Is Sacred — Protecting consciousness in abundant worlds
- Universal High Income vs. UBI — Why cash alone doesn’t solve meaning
- Universal Basic Compute — Why compute might matter more than cash
- Maya Dual Economy — Historical precedent for the 90/10 split
Key Concepts
- The Ascent — The 10% layer of genuinely scarce opportunities earned through contribution
- Impact — Non-transferable, decaying currency of validated contribution
- Diversity Guard — Cross-cultural validation preventing capture of value definitions
- Infinite Game — Game where the goal is to keep playing, not to win and stop
