Future civilization speculation post over at Kurzweilai

That is not how it works. There are costs involved in exploration, extraction. mining, refining, manufacture and transport. If you think that you can just live in a virtual world, then you are perfect for mind uploading. Sell up and transfer your wealth to my Singudollahs...I promise not to....(You know the rest...)

Ok, suppose I take vast amounts of land, and put fully self sufficient facilities in there, large solar panels, fusion reactors, etc. Just need to send an automated bot to the ocean every few centuries to pick up a bit of water if I want to be all gungho high energy consumption, or every few millenia or more depending on energy use and how much I want to store.

With full self sufficiency with the use of molecular machines able to self repair and recycle all wastes, we could even cut off virtually all matter exchange with the outside and have an enclosed atmosphere, surviving out of sunlight, and keep fusion fuel just in case of emergencies.

Molecular machines can create anything from arbitrary products of the highest quality, displays, computers, machinery, cars, etc to biological humanoids of any shape or size. All ageless, self repairing, that is essentially immortal.

Brain Computer interfaces potentially allow any possible sensation to be experienced at a whim, at a moment's notice, and replayed again and again for free.

It is said that a single grain of sand might be convertible to over a million trillion human brain equivalent, even if the numbers on the brain estimate(think it was 10Petaflop) were off by a million, that's a trillion brains equivalent, hypothetically speaking Even if we reduced this number by a thousand to allow for cooling and interconnect reductions in usable area, that still leaves a billion humans per grain of sand equivalent, hypothetically speaking.

Already memory state changes at petahertz range are being considered as conceivable. So take it I create entire agi civilizations to create vast quantities of art and science. All that content would be mine to use as I desire, I can exchange it, if need be, but realize that for entertainment and increasing my knowledge I no longer would have any need of the external society.

The only thing society would offer in such a scenario is dangers, restrictions and attempts at extracting resources from me and others, if I and others reached that state. I'd have to bother with society, because as a group they may attempt to overpower me and take what's rightfully mine. IF a dictator or what have you took power, I'd basically have to resist. The question is what right does society have to impose its will upon my domain, and demand resources from me, and threaten me with potential torture, deprivation of liberty, etc even were I innocent of any crime?

Yes, initial costs. Then, maintenance costs. Energy can be harvested "for free", once the initial costs have been covered. Then, energy can be harvested "for free", whilst maintenance costs are factored in, over a given theoretical period of time.

There are trees in the middle of the forest that have existed for hundreds of years without paying anyone. These trees depend on an open atmosphere, have low energy assimilation, and do not compare to what is possible with fusion reactors, high efficiency solar energy extraction, and fully enclosed atmospheres.

The plants I kill with herbicide and rip root out from the concrete cracks, they pay no one for materials, they extract them from the ground and the atmosphere. Their maintenance is free, and they self replace, had they been made immortal they'd be there for hundreds of years should no one rip them out.

Fully automated molecular machines cost nothing to maintain, and cost nothing to make, they can emerge from raw garbage, from the ground, from the ocean, from anywhere. We only need the knowledge to create the first set of advanced molecular manufacturing systems, and this system alone can create unlimited versions for free. At most the cost of all the molecular machine systems of the entire universe, all future colonies and all future machines throughout the cosmos, the only cost is the initial R&D cost. And again if you have agi, that's only energy and computational costs, quite small by comparison of all it allows.

Again, you do not own the resources that are required for the very many different things, that you may require. You may own a house and a garden and a car and a dog and a cat and plants and soil. That does not "a free stuff robot" make...

We have no reason to suppose that biological machinery cannot be used to create neural interfaces and advanced computational hardware. Biological machinery self replicates and can basically grow and self maintain all its own, as said even from a few cracks of concrete under partial shadow, vast volumes of biological tissue are constructed automatically and free within weeks. Again this is at low efficiency of solar energy extraction, a high efficiency solar extractor + fusion reactor system, will vastly surpass the rate of biological tissue construction from atmospheric and ground resources.

You need the refined, manufactured and transported at a cost, ready to print, or create, product, that cost someone, somewhere, money, to get to the point that makes it safe and ready to use.

Well One of Drexler's point is that molecular control allows the substitution of cheap common elements for rare elements, all while construction products nearly as good in some cases, but actually vastly superior to current products that use rare building materials in many cases.

Here's the thing to experience any sensation, you need only a neural interface with advanced computer, no reason to suppose it is impossible with biological machinery to do so, and if it is it can be done cheaply with easily available materials. One of the most versatile elements carbon is cheaply available, and molecular machines can build arbitrary products with extraordinary resilience from it. Structurally it may allow for superior airplanes, cars, boats, and all manner of vehicles.

Display wise, we already know organic materials can be used, no reason to suppose biology cannot create high quality ageless displays.
Here's the other thing, molecular machines allow for advanced and perfect recycling, as well as self repairing immortal appliances. Even if the appliance breaks down it can be perfectly reconstructed into a brand new one. Not seeing what exactly it is you need, all this can run automatically with no human intervention, potentially.

There won't be such a time, where "robots have freed us from any concerns over money", where people who have not paid in some way, just lay around and do nothing, whilst robots/AI take care of everything. That is a "heaven of free stuff' belief.

I'm not seeing what exactly stops that once we can design minds. If we have a willing high intelligence being doing work for peanuts, tada. A fraction of the human population has investments managed by others generating in a month more money than a normal human could normally use in a lifetime. This fraction in essence uses the rest of the population as machinery, to travel from place to place and some live a life of pure leisure and decadence. WHAT EXACTLY stops these people to continue their ways, but simply replace the rest of the human population with advanced self sufficient machinery should they want and be able to do so? If the machines are as capable or even more capable, more intelligent, stronger, self sufficient, there's nothing man can do that such can't do better.

what will you do when machines are smarter and more dextrous than you

This is silly. Mind design is quite ample, not all need be non-subservient. Look at a company the engineers, the managers, etc the collective it is smarter than the ceo, and sometimes the ceo's activities are actually to the detriment of the company, which would be better without him, yet they're paid regardless.

If you've a civilization of agi under your roof, it generates more art and science in a year than that generated throughout the collective history of mankind. All those assets are yours, and you can exchange them with others. Whether they'd have worth when anyone can reproduce Einstein, Shakespeare, Archimedes level of quality works. Who knows.

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