The dire post-apocalyptic future

I wonder if we'll ever get to a point sometime in the future where even gold has no value. I wonder if there will ever be a time where food is the only thing of value. Such a thought is scary.

I can certainly see it happening. The anime Trigun was somewhat along these lines, except that it was water that was rare and traded. Frank Herbert's Dune was the same.

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actually fresh water is rarity even though 3/4ths of this planet is covered in salty water.
Many places in the 3rd world people don't have clean drinking water. They drink from the same water that is used a sewer upstream a few miles. Or stagnant water, or arsenic tainted wells.

You should see some of the excellent shows about Water PBS has produced.

Did you know that Los Angeles (10,000,000,000 people) live there only as a function of huge 100s of mile long pipes from distant valleys and from the Colorado river a couple of states away?

I think at some point, especially in space, food will be manufactured as an industrial process. Scoop up organics from the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn or their moons and process them into edible molecules, starches, proteins, fats, & vitamins.

After the destruction of war, people will sell anything for food and sometimes water. Also cigarettes. If desperate people in bombed ruins are willing to do anything for a cigarette it is at least as addictive as coc aine.
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Originally posted by slank
Did you know that Los Angeles (10,000,000,000 people) live there only as a function of huge 100s of mile long pipes from distant valleys and from the Colorado river a couple of states away?

Did u mean 10 billion or 10 million people in LA? 10 million is more credible, I believe!

Originally posted by slank
Did you know that Los Angeles (10,000,000,000 people) live there only as a function of huge 100s of mile long pipes from distant valleys and from the Colorado river a couple of states away?

Erm, I think you mean Los Vegas, because LV's water situation is rather well known. Anyway, you might want to try using scientific notation next time (e.g. 10^7), or words (e.g. ten million).

Anyway, your other points are good. I should have mentioned that water is already a precious commodity in many parts of the world where drinkable water is hard to come by. However, I think that's more of a problem with distribution than lack of water. Rich nations, like the US and most of Western Europe, have no problems with supplying copious amounts of drinkable water (it's a tad sickening to see people waste water on their lawns, of all things; it's not that important, people).