this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2025
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[Hypothetical] Infinite (Raw) Resources versus Infinite Knowledge? (hexbear.net)
submitted 4 months ago by GamersOfTheWorld@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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There are two groups of people. They're each given a magic/alien/divine trinket.

Group A's trinket can instantly produce any raw resource. A raw resource is anything that could exist without a humor labor process (cooking, blacksmithing, woodworking, etc). If something absolutely requires human labor to be put into it to exist, it can't be made by the magic box.

Group B's trinket can make one gain a hypothetically "perfect" theoretical understanding of everything. Essentially, if there was a Universal PhD in Everything (medicine, engineering, etc.), they would obtain it without any effort. It works on anyone, and this knowledge is implanted instantly.

If given all the time in the universe, which group would survive the test of time or come out on top of the other? This has been stirring in my brain for a while, and I want to hear your thoughts.

I personally lean Group B because they wouldn't have to discover or painstakingly engineer anything, and could immediately set their sails for technologies they know to exist. But at the same time, Group A would never have to worry about scarcity, so they could dedicate all of their time to infrastructure and research unlike Group B which still has to deal with scarcity.

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[–] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 5 points 4 months ago

Knowledge.

You’re not getting anything that has to be mined out of the ground, who mined it? You’re not getting anything related to agriculture and a very limited subset of “wild” food, who developed it or harvested it?

The video game ass concept of “resources” devalues the labor required to produce them.

If you want to put it to a game, the only reasonable context in which these circumstances could exist, use civ or something and see what happens.