I wanted to read Commune 2000 AD, by Mack Reynolds, after reading about the specfic future without jobs found in Player Piano. In both, future tech has made working unnecessary for most people, but unlike the restlessness in Player Piano, in Commune 2000 AD, citizens without any need to work spend their time pursuing hobbies or connecting with interest-based communities. Technology has created a surplus, and most people don’t need to work anymore. The job computers select the absolute best worker for each position, and then everyone else receives a universal income.

Ted Swain is basically a post-post-grad student, and he gets a call from his advisor about a possible thesis topic. Researching the local communes isn’t really Ted’s’ focus, but it’s not too far off, and his advisor and other big names are pretty keen to read Ted’s research, so he agrees to look into some of these lifestyle communities.

Negative reviews of this book note (accurately) that a researcher looking around and asking direct question about life under the universal guaranteed income doesn’t make much of a plot. This is a legit criticism. Overall, Commune 2000 AD is thoughts about humans’ relationship with work, money and authority, and the social possibilities of more leisure time, with a bit of a story about Ted connecting it together. Our protag’s job is to ask about how people live and what their priorities are, and the other characters usually respond with an infodump back.

But I still enjoyed the book because these are interesting infodumps, in an interesting world. There’s a group who want to live as ancient Greeks, a nudist colony, an artist’s colony, and a lesbian community. The book isn’t asking we need work to give our lives meaning. It’s made clear that most people enjoy their lives with time and money for an active social life and pursuing interests. Interests range from intellectual curiosity, to sports, to art, to just having a good time with similar people.  The book does ask what happens to human nature without the greed for property, or rather, it asks if everyone can be satisfied with having enough or if some people still need more wealth and power.

Modern readers may cringe at the stereotypes for the queer characters. These are minor scenes, but it’s still pretty heavy-handed. Remembering that Commune 2000 AD was written in the 70s, though,  including openly queer communities and fully out characters as part of the liberated future society helps establish the open-minded, accepting specfic setting.

I should include that the straight relationships are also pretty one-note. In the future, everyone is ready to bang everyone else at a moment’s notice. I understand that this is a liberated society, in a book written mostly for young men, and obviously no one has anything like a headache or a spouse in this future, but no one needs a shower first, no one’s meeting a friend in 20 minutes, no one’s just not feeling it, they’re just constantly ready to bang the main character.

As Ted visits different communities, and shows the reader all the different happy lifestyles made possible by the Universal Guaranteed Income, he also notices some cracks in the system. Who counts as a citizen? Who participates in politics? What control can the government exert over citizens, without the threat of poverty and homelessness? Most of these are still really thoughtful and thought-provoking questions, with a streak of the hippie idea of going off the grid and ditching society.

Even if the plot is mostly about a guy walking around getting laid between specfic infodumps, the world created by the production surplus, the job computers selecting the absolute best workers for each position, and then  and the basic universal income is intriguing.