Sim e não. Em termos de produção de energia, há uma linha descartável na metade do romance que menciona que entre 2130-2160, a humanidade adquiriu a habilidade de criar um poder de fusão estável. Isso é algo que deveria, em teoria, resultar na produção quase ilimitada de eletricidade:
The Turnaround: 2130 to 2160. Verteswandel (Shortback’s famous “mutation of values”), followed by revolutions; strong AI; self-replicating factories; terraforming of Mars begun; fusion power; strong synthetic biology; climate modification efforts, including the disastrous Little Ice Age of 2142–54; space elevators on Earth and Mars; fast space propulsion; the space diaspora begun; the Mondragon Accord signed.
No que diz respeito às necessidades materiais, parece que o antigo problema de distribuição de bens escassos ainda é um problema em 2312:
Going down in the cars were food (a crucial percentage of the total needed), metals, manufactured goods, gases, and people. Going up were people, manufactured goods, the substances common on Earth but rare in space—these were many, including things animal, vegetable, and mineral, but chiefly (by bulk) rare earths, wood, oil, and soil. The totals came to quite a flow of physical mass up and down, all powered by the counterbalanced forces of gravity and the rotation of the Earth, with a bit of solar power to make up the difference.