We are seeing the Crisis of the transition to an age without scarcity of the basics of life. Computer power is so cheap that anyone who wishes to get any worthy material for enjoyment can get it (already true -- as we have free access to a plethora of books and concerts) . 3D printing will make centralized production and distribution of trinkets a non-distinction in life. Commodity fetishes will become irrelevant. Status symbols will lose their significance. Virtual reality will allow people to have a windowless apartment (that will allow mass housing of a form that we have never tolerated) with a simulation of a great view. You could be in Kansas City and have an excellent view of the (San Francisco) Bay from your "bay window". Or maybe the Kansas City stockyards if such is your taste.
Of course, real estate will not be cheap barring a genocidal war that decimates humanity. People will get simulated views and even experiences of vacations. One might even get a simulation of climbing Mount Everest (I have no desire to do the real thing -- it's just too dangerous and difficult for my taste).
We will be working far fewer hours than was the norm at the end of the last 4T -- barring the catastrophic destruction of cities as during World War II. The tools of warfare are much deadlier than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Of course, real estate will not be cheap barring a genocidal war that decimates humanity. People will get simulated views and even experiences of vacations. One might even get a simulation of climbing Mount Everest (I have no desire to do the real thing -- it's just too dangerous and difficult for my taste).
We will be working far fewer hours than was the norm at the end of the last 4T -- barring the catastrophic destruction of cities as during World War II. The tools of warfare are much deadlier than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.