Posted on 12/10/2014 1:05:31 PM PST by giant sable
The technologies of the past, by replacing human muscle, increased the value of human effort – and in the process drove rapid economic progress. Those of the future, by substituting for man’s senses and brain, will accelerate that process – but at the risk of creating millions of citizens who are simply unable to contribute economically, and with greater damage to an already declining middle class.
(Excerpt) Read more at hbr.org ...
Beaches more crowded during the week?
WALL-E
we already have them in abundance
What’s that saying about “Idle hands”?
You get a ton of robot repairmen.
Kurt Vonnegut covered this question back in 1952.
https://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/player-piano-by-kurt-vonnegut/
What happens when robots repair the robots?
I mean ... there's nothing ELSE to do, right ?
“What happens when robots repair the robots?”
See the movie “Silent Running”.
This is a potential dream come true for liberals. They will be writing laws that require employers to contribute a "substitute wage" for every robotic task performed in their businesses. That substitute wage will go into a pool separate from social security and be used to subsidize and support people who have no avenues of employment. These people, in return will be regressed to being supported to the tune of about $8 an hour - right where they are now, except they won't have to work.
The result will be a similar battle to what we see no except that instead of demanding a higher wage for working, they will demand higher support. The dems will gain greater control over a bigger class of perpetually poor people.
(I'm not an economist, but I play one on the interweb)
Which brings to mind the bigger societal problem of when robots replace women...
We’re already seeing some of the societal defects caused by internet porn.
For some folks, “Zero Economic Value” would be a step up.
They start getting all bent out of shape by the influx of illegal Mexican robots?
“Which brings to mind the bigger societal problem of when robots replace women”
They’re working on it in Japan as young men and women are becoming estranged from each other and as the birth rate sinks below the replacement level:
That is indeed the likely scenario. However, I’m curious what your alternative is for a future where there is zero economic demand for the contributions most people are capable of making to the economy.
This is likely to be a society where enormous amounts of “stuff” is produced with very little human input.
Do those few people who are still productive obtain automatic title to everything that is produced?
Is there any way to prevent this without shutting down innovation, which would of course require a totalitarian system?
I’m a huge fan of the free market, which has had a darn good run of several centuries. But it’s perhaps best known for its ability at “creative destruction.”
I’m beginning to suspect that its last act of creative destruction will be self-destruction.
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