PBS uses ‘Minecraft’ to explain something called the ‘post-scarcity economy’

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

Follow @fortninety More from Matt Hawkins >

Do you know what the term “post-scarcity economy” means? Neither did I, despite living in it, until PBS explained the term. With a little help from Minecraft.

For years, PBS has been using a monster that’s addicted to junk food to teach little kids how to count, and a blind peson (who still managed to pilot a starship) how reading is important. Impressive, I know.

And now they’ve tapped into Minecraft to illustrate a perfect future that we’ve all dreamt of, being far closer than many realized. Past the intro to the game (which, alas, was done better by Conan), it immediately gets into heady material for the following four and a half minutes.

Yeah, it does sound pretty fantastical, but aside from 99% of the stuff we have now in our daily lives being the stuff of sci-fi only 25 years ago, I personally have fiddled around with a Makerbot and can attest firsthand to its awesomeness.