Rodney

Good qualifier: because "communism as it's been practiced" is not communism. It's much closer to life inside a modern corporation: a vast hierarchy run by an elite class of bureaucrats, with little except lip service paid to quality of life for the flunkies. Except in corporate life you get to go home, while under communism you're under the thumb 24/7.

The closest thing you're going to see to true communism anywhere in the near future is Star Trek: TNG, Voyager, and so on. There's enough for everybody; you need something, you punch a couple of buttons and pull it out of the wall. Everybody's got health care and education and a place to live and a job to do.

I think that if technology progresses in a constructive way and if its benefits are shared equally, eventually we will end up at something like communism. Nobody'll call it that, and it may not be a class-free society. But when we get to a point where food, lodging, health care, education, communication, transportation, and many common luxuries are free or very cheap, then I think nobody'll be able to tell the difference.

For an interesting sci-fi take on communism in a society of plenty, and what form that society might take, take a look at the novel "Voyage from Yesteryear," by James Hogan; came out about 20-25 years ago. Not the greatest writing in the world, but is an interesting take on how a society might work if everything material was free for the asking, the stoop labor was mainly done by machines, and there was no money. How would society organize itself? Would this be a classless society, or would there be a hierarchy? And if there was, would you recognize it if you saw it?