Quantum Economic Model

The **Quantum Economic Model** or **Quantum Economics** is an economic system based on social ownership and AI control of the means of production of natural resources and living necessities and the private ownership of the means of production of goods derived from those resources and necessities. Characteristics central to quantum economics include AI control of all resources not claimed as private property, a dynamically controlled price system, and competitive markets. In a quantum market economy, decision-making and investment is determined trillions of simulations by networked AIs of the factors of production in financial and capital markets, however prices and the distribution of secondary goods are mainly determined by competition in the market.

The QEM has existed under many forms of government, in many different times, places, and cultures. Following the decline of capitalism, quantum economic systems became dominant in the colonies, while seeing limited use on Earth until the Third Mexican-American War.

## History

### **Habitat Quantum Economics**

Quantum economics was gradually introduced in the colonies during the early days of space colonization, when people's consumption of resources and basic needs were strictly regulated due to rationing. Resources in the first off-Earth settlements were scarce and tightly managed for individual habitats. These early resource management programs were developed with the intent to manage all the consumables of a given habitat much as any life support system would manage atmosphere, temperature, and humidity conditions. They were also some of the first pieces of software coded specifically for quantum computers, with insurance agencies demanding some means of guaranteeing their investment. At the time, none of the residents of these habitats saw this as an alternative to capital market economics, however historical sociologists largely agree that its introduction laid the social groundwork for the colonies to freely adopt quantum economic policies.

### **Agrarian Quantum Economics**

Originally used as an advanced habitat consumable control system, Agrarian Economic Management algorithms began to be implemented in larger habitats and colonies as a means of internally controlling food grown on-site as any other consumable. However, as production began to generate surpluses, in the case of settlements like Bradbury, settlements began to form 'free trade agreements' to manage agricultural output jointly. This was the first example of multiple consumable control systems operating together to jointly manage the exchange of goods and services, while controlling the means of their production. In effect, these early agreements were the first true instances of quantum economic management being put into practice. As more colonies were built the systems that were already in place were simply expanded to cover the new colonies. It was actually these agrarian quantum economic systems, working in parallel with parametric colony planning software that created the first infrastructure projects for Mars, forming the basis for quantum economically driven colony planning.

### **Industrial Quantum Economics**

As the food supply began to stabilize, and colonists could expand beyond scientific research and agriculture, agrarian quantum management and colony planning software were adapted for use at colony mining camps and processing facilities. The goal was to merely streamline the exchange of goods between colonies, however subroutines were eventually created to directly control the delivery of raw materials to colonies based on rough estimates of the areas needs. This was done to mitigate shortages and make the entire economy more efficient, but it formed the basis for commodities being controlled under the QEM even for their purchase by capital markets. When merged with the network of quantum management software, additional widgets were crafted to account for the consumption of resources not only for infrastructure and colony management, but the demands of local businesses as well. This actually developed on Mars before Luna, as the demands for Lunar resources and resupply from Earth made it not as necessary to seek a means of maximum efficiency of resource management.

## Characteristics

The Quantum Economic Model (QEM) is an economic system in which the economy is planned, simulated, and managed by government quantum computer networks, which work in concert with smaller networks across the system running simulations trillions of times a second on virtually every economic scenario to insure a stable, prosperous economy. Essential services and basic resources, largely already under the control of the founding companies of the ITC (which were themselves little more than individual trade commissions with their own QEM networks) are all controlled by the ITC through the QEM. Resources are distributed to people based on need, as determined by the analysis of the computer networks, and essential services are created and managed to keep the economy operating at peak efficiency.

### **Summary**

As time went on and the resources of the solar system became readily available to the point that any world with sufficient space access could enjoy a post scarcity economy, quantum economic theory continued to grow and evolve, becoming the primary means of managing post-scarcity resources in a planetary system, territory, or even township. Automation (far more prevalent in the colonies earlier in history due to the settlers initial lack of manpower), drove the QEM into full swing as the post scarcity economy no longer required large portions of the population to support it. Market-based economics exist within the QEM to promote entrepreneurial activity, but are not beyond the control of the QEM because private enterprise ultimately depends on the price of raw materials. Thus recessions and depressions can be avoided by simultaneously controlling prices, interest rates, and credit availability through quantum economic management. Additionally, quantum economics solves unemployment problems through its management of basic services. An economically inactive person (unemployed) receives the bare minimum resources required to keep them from endangering the rest of the economy, but the QEM takes advantage of any inflation in the inactive pool of the populace to offer socially-beneficial opportunities to individuals. These are essentially community service jobs that are HIGHLY targeted to those who request them, not just based on skill, but everything from personal history, psychology, pathology, interrelationships, etc. For most though, the QEM enables people to live comfortable lives that let them seek personal fulfillment, be they industrious, entrepreneurial, artistic, etc.

### **Managed economy**

A managed economy is a type of economy consisting of a mixture of public ownership of the means of production and the coordination of production and distribution through economic planning. Quantum economics was originally conducted as a means of decentralized planning, however it later evolved into a kind of Federalist system of planning, with decentralization planning being used throughout the economy controlled by different levels of centralized planning to manage competing interests in resources. The first quantum planning software was derived from Enrico Barone's theoretical framework for a planned socialist economies, however successive versions quickly became more sophisticated by incorporation human traffic algorithms, chaos theory, and machine learning to create plans that could be adapted instantly and account for the chaotic nature of humanity.

The first, and most prominent example of a planned economy prior to the formation of the Interplanetary Trade Commission was the economic system of Mars, and as such, the decentralised-managed economic model is usually associated with colonies of the 21st Century, where it was combined with a quasi-corporate political system. In a decentrally managed economy, decisions regarding the quantity of basic goods and services to be produced are planned in advance by a network of quantum computing administrative AI, while the exchange of goods and services derived from those basic ones are merely managed through AI controls on taxes. Instead of conscious planning, the Martian economy was based on a process whereby the plan was modified by localized AI trillions of times a second (albeit ever so slightly) in concert with the entire network.