I'm perpetually astonished at how many people it takes to "keep the lights on" as it were. Just think about how many different kinds of machine screws you can get without worrying about where they come from.
What if you were optimizing for smallness instead of efficiency? I don’t think the minimum number of people who could possibly make X is equal to the number who do in practice make X in the world today.
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You mention "efficiency" as though you could dispatch with it and *reduce* the number of people involved, but if you reduce it, you *increase* the number of people involved. Efficiency is why we can do it with "only" billions of people.
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And remember, economics plays a real role here. If you eliminate all competitors for a particular part, the cost goes up, which means your ability to afford it goes down, etc. Basically,
@vgr's fantasy world is just that. - 3 more replies
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