https://cxy0714.github.io/en/tags/worldbuilding/Recent content in Worldbuilding on Xingyu ChenHugoen-USThu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://cxy0714.github.io/en/2026/05/14/comparative-civilization-economics-robot/Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://cxy0714.github.io/en/2026/05/14/comparative-civilization-economics-robot/<blockquote> <p>&ldquo;The robot civilisation has the simplest economic structure of all the descendant civilisations we know of. Its simplicity is not because it is primitive, but because its creators — us — removed for it almost all the conditions that make economics necessary.&rdquo;</p> <p>— <em>Outline of Comparative Civilisation Economics</em>, Chapter 2</p> </blockquote> <h2 id="origins">Origins</h2> <p>Lately I have been reading Mankiw&rsquo;s <em>Principles of Economics</em> as bedtime reading, and I began to imagine: what are the civilisation-level assumptions on which the various concepts and phenomena of economics depend? If we switched to a different form of civilisation, would the whole set of basic economic concepts and phenomena — prices, markets, money, finance, employment, inflation — still arise?</p>