Specifically, it was the concept of a post-scarcity culture that pulled me up short. Now, the best example of this we have in (television) science fiction is Star Trek. They live in a setting where everyone has replicators that make them whatever the hell they want, from food to clothing to industrial parts. The only limitation to this technology is the ho-normous amount of information required to replicate things at the quantum level, which is why they can't just make things like living beings or stuff with a complex quantum structure such as rare minerals, out of thin air.
In any case, currency is a nebulous thing at best on this show, where characters often prattle on about people no longer living to pursue wealth and instead everyone wants to better themselves by taking philosophy and pilates classes all day.
Now, in my science fiction setting I want to have some real world elements, and I want to make them work. Specifically, I want things like crime, money and piracy. But I also want post-scarcity technology elements such as replicated food.
What I'm thinking so far is that the Alliance (the political grouping of alien species and humanity in this setting) is close to being post scarcity, but hasn't got there yet. This way I can incorporate the teething problems of the transitionary period and make it part of the story. People are guaranteed a certain amount of free energy use per day, enough to make food with from replicators, with enough left over to save up and have cheap clothing made. But if they want anything past living in a 5th Element style shoebox apartment and eating synthetic food, then they have to get a job.
So thus far we have free food, clothing and shelter for the masses, but things like space travel, eating real, grown food, wearing clothes made out of actual cotton or silk, buying complex electronic equipment, these things are, for the time being, still 'scarce' goods, at least until technology takes another leap forward and storing quantum level information becomes viable.
With this in mind, it seems the currency would be basically energy, which then begged the question as to why energy wasn't just more abundantly free for everyone. The only answer I can currently think of would be faster than light travel, and the enormous energy demands this places on the society. With a galactic economy in place, starships capable of travelling between planets would be the lifeblood that keeps it running, obviously, supplying raw materials and colonists to newly settled planets, trade goods and other non replicated items to established planets. I suppose other futuristic infrastructure needs would also be a drain on energy supplies, such as teleportation networks, planetary defence, communication systems and so on.
There are some holes in this idea, but those could work in my favour since, like I said, the idea of the Alliance transitioning towards a post scarcity culture appeals to me. On the more affluent or older planets especially that have huge power collection ability, people will be starting to question why more of this energy isn't freely available to the citizenry. It also asks interesting setting questions like whether energy is legally able to be gathered commercially, or whether it's all state controlled since it forms the basis for the galactic economy.
Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts so far. Please take the time to read and respond with thoughts, questions, criticisms, whatever. The more feedback I get the more robust the final setting will be.
