I'm slowly making my way through the 'Culture Series' of novels by the late Iain M. Banks. They deal with a 'post scarcity' society, where there is no requirement to work, as everything is essentially provided for you. Of course people still have roles in this society, but they are roles that are not imposed upon you by an outside agency.
One question that occurred to me abut such a society was: Would people who played physical sports receive higher recognition than people who played mind sports?
Bank's himself provides some sort of answer in the second book of the series 'The Player of Games', but would a society that did not have to physically labour reject all forms of physical competition, or would they instead embrace it as something outside the norm?
1 comment:
My guess is that sport would receive extraordinary emphasis, just as it does in our over-affluent society (I am already sick of the sound Sochi). How lucky you are, still to have some of Banks's exquisite SF to read!
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