- #Life is feudal wiki wheelbarrow manual
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In modern-day society, we have machines that are quite capable of automatically pressing license plates, but the DMV is still getting prisoners to do it. Many "prison mine" examples are more about the punishment than the mining. Part of the reason for this is that the evil being portrayed usually isn't the slavery itself, but the punishment which the workers must endure. Even if kept "safely" in the mine, a mine slave is easily capable of destroying large sections of the mine and costing the overseers large amounts of time and money. A disgruntled slave who's a C4 expert (or even one with just a pickax) is substantially more dangerous than one who works primarily with a hoe (not that you should write the latter guys off if you've got them in a pinch either-isn't that right, oppressors of the peasant caste in the ancient Far East?). In these environments, slaves are very inconvenient to provide for, and they have much more dangerous machinery at their disposal. What makes this trope appear blatant is that futuristic slavery rarely involves these environments, but rather things like mining and industrial work. There are some jobs (namely service work) which are just too complex for any currently envisioned mechanical technology to do without some human assistance. Sometimes the trope is justified by slaves or servants symbolizing social prestige, but in societies that are supposed to the technological near-equivalent of The Federation or whatever outfit the heroes belong to, it comes as a bit surprising that interstellar polities so frequently appear dependent on menial and dangerous labor conditions with No OSHA Compliance-and if they represent social prestige, why aren't they on display, as servants? Items of Conspicuous Consumption aren't conspicious if they are hidden away in a mine.įor what it's worth, there are some benefits to slavery which could explain its use in a futuristic setting.
#Life is feudal wiki wheelbarrow manual
However, we have to ask ourselves why such technologically advanced civilizations (presumably capable of building automated robot mines) choose to be so dependent on manual labor as to indenture or enslave thousands, even millions of sapient beings instead of applying technological solutions which are cheaper, more efficient, and more humane. Why mining? Because cave sets are cheap and easily redressed to represent different planets.
#Life is feudal wiki wheelbarrow series
While the Cool Starship of the series has fully automated food dispensers, and artificial intelligence and nanotechnology are realities, indentured servitude and slavery of sapient beings is still widespread, and the most common slave occupation by far in The Future (TM) is the lowly miner. Common in science fiction, especially in Days of Future Past, but also in Space Opera, Wagon Train to the Stars, and many other subgenres.