| Figleaf23 |
12-06-2009 07:18 PM |
Re: Ensuring post-apocalyptic survival at TL8?
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Originally Posted by riprock
(Post 892837)
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One can indeed substitute capital for many medical services. Anyone who decides to take an aspirin rather than pestering a physician has substituted the capital of aspirin for the services of the physician.
This is not the same as saying the substitution of capital for labor never runs into limits.
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This case invokes such limits, on a very practical level.
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I think the serious anthropologists who studied it say that humans prefer to live in self-contained tribes of 100 to 200. Obviously, this is not always an option in modern societies: even the Amish enclaves have to face the outside world every so often.
In pop-sci terms, the Dunbar number can be made to promise almost anything for your company, just so long as you buy Malcolm Gladwell's next book. Practically speaking, I opine that most people work better within a small "tribe" of closely trusted persons, and that most people like to shut out the larger society whenever possible.
I have recently observed a university with more than 10,000 students. Everyone tries to define a little "tribe" or "village" of less than 200 souls and behaves as if the rest of the university - and the rest of the city - is not part of the tribal world.
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Interesting ... but inconclusive. Is the 200 number as tendered supposed to represent units functioning within a greater society or are they supposed to be stand-alone societies at that number?
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Yes, but how often does one need surgery when living in a resource-rich planned community with lots of automation?
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Frequency is irrelevant. When high level medical service is needed, it's needed. And even more so when you're talking about a small population with each individual holding a substantial portion of the group's know-how.
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I should have been much more specific; I should have said something like, "I have a list of cases wherein high-tech professionals managed to accomplish feats which had been previously dismissed as 'impossible' by substituting capital for labor."
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Yes, that would have been less subject to quibbles. |