Starting in the next few years (and I mean few) we're going to start the process of replacing all forms of human labor with automation. Until we get that worked out, and until we get away from the old notions of "economics" and "money" and "the welfare state" and actually sit down as a species and talk about these notions and work out that neither socialism nor capitalism can address widespread automation - both of those ideas were crafted before automation was thought of. Even the "solutions" put forth by the most "out-there" social and political leaders (namely UBI) is little more than a 'bag-on-the-side' of our current system that doesn't address the root problem.
If we don't sort this out soon, and find a replacement model for wage labor, there's a technology on deck right now that's going to put something like 10 million Americans out of work - self-driving cars.
Post-scarcity economy would be great, and we've thought about how those work. What about low-scarcity economies? How does the transition from wage labor to Star Trek's replicator work? What do we do when 99% of the people in the world _can't_ make a meaningful, useful contribution to the economy because they just aren't needed? Let them starve? That means demand goes down, less profit, more layoffs and fewer people participating in the economy (which means less profit and more layoffs)!
I keep telling my RL people "This isn't some far-off sci-fi froo froo crap. This is happening right now." and I feel like a little dutch boy with his finger sticking in a hole in the dike. Then I get a bunch of political talking points thrown in my face and nothing gets changed.
The short term future I foresee is like the movie "Elysium"....only worse. Matt Damon wouldn't have had the robot-painting job, because a robot could do it quicker, safer, and more accurately with no sick days, no lunch break, less waste and no industrial accidents.
Maybe this transition to "post-scarcity" is one of the Great Filters that explains the Fermi Paradox? I f***ing hope not, because we're completely unprepared for it and running at it with our eyes closed at a dead sprint.
If we don't sort this out soon, and find a replacement model for wage labor, there's a technology on deck right now that's going to put something like 10 million Americans out of work - self-driving cars.
Post-scarcity economy would be great, and we've thought about how those work. What about low-scarcity economies? How does the transition from wage labor to Star Trek's replicator work? What do we do when 99% of the people in the world _can't_ make a meaningful, useful contribution to the economy because they just aren't needed? Let them starve? That means demand goes down, less profit, more layoffs and fewer people participating in the economy (which means less profit and more layoffs)!
I keep telling my RL people "This isn't some far-off sci-fi froo froo crap. This is happening right now." and I feel like a little dutch boy with his finger sticking in a hole in the dike. Then I get a bunch of political talking points thrown in my face and nothing gets changed.
The short term future I foresee is like the movie "Elysium"....only worse. Matt Damon wouldn't have had the robot-painting job, because a robot could do it quicker, safer, and more accurately with no sick days, no lunch break, less waste and no industrial accidents.
Maybe this transition to "post-scarcity" is one of the Great Filters that explains the Fermi Paradox? I f***ing hope not, because we're completely unprepared for it and running at it with our eyes closed at a dead sprint.