Yeah. I read it. Given the constraint, premise, and assumptions, what Stross says makes sense. It's model that's limited in scope.

I'm not being religious. Satisfaction and contentedness is something you can go verify for yourself by observing yourself.

It is entirely possible for an individual to fulfill existential needs even with the horrors of 30% child mortality rate, but most people can't or don't do that. Technology serves as a great support for this, but it will never actually fulfill those existential needs.

It's my hope that microfab technologies will free up people's time so that they can really look into existential needs.