How did the Terran Federation economy work?

SWM wrote:To be fair, the Federation plan was to put that tech base away, too, at least for five hundred years or so. It's not as if Federation technology would have continued straight on to singularity.

But I agree that throwing it away permanently counts as a crime comparable to the Gbaba. In fact, we have had several past discussions comparing the Langhorne plan for freezing technology with the Gbaba who appear to be in technological stasis.

That is what I was referring to. See my response to MTO for further details about singularity definitions. However with regards to why the Federation might have been able to defeat the Gbaba if it had more time. I believe the relevant fact was that the Gbaba weren't improving their technology at all. So if the Federation had ten more years they would have had the technology to build metaphorical(or possible literal) Death Stars.



Dilandu

The Gbaba are thinking agents with some free will. They may be limited and lack personal initiative but they aren't dumb machines. They can think and adapt, that is a requirement to map and conquer new solar systems. They may be bad at creating new things but they can do old things perfectly well. Plus two other things.

1: However they are now they had to get to now first. So they would have already learned how to build those AI/PICA fleets and already had them in action.

2: We don't know why the Gbaba are how they are. There could be many reasons for their culture that make them behave so oddly. See the Achuultani in the Dahak series for one possible way that could happen but still leave room for learning new things.



MTO

I was using the first definition of singularity which you listed and the Federation had also achieved the second. With regards to the third definition, I would point out that we do not know much about the Terran Federation's actual mass production processes. OWL is able to do what you mentioned, but OWL isn't producing starships. Also, being able to do something doesn't mean that is the best way to achieve your goal. 3D printers can make many great things but it is much more efficient to mass produce whatever you are making and then ship it, if you want a bunch of a certain item and can afford to wait.

I think we can dispense with any particular definition of singularity, at least for the topic at hand. We aren't going to agree on a definition here (for instance, I would say that HighJohn's definition of singularity is merely the beginning of singularity). I believe what was actually meant in the earlier posts was "a level of technology sufficient to decisively defeat the Gbaba". So if we simply replace "singularity" in my first post with "a level of technology sufficient to decisively defeat the Gbaba", we can get back to the topic.