The age of automation will be transformational. We need to rethink our current industrial age models on labor and capital. Futurists have discussed the acceleration of automation because capital gets cheaper and cheaper while labor stagnates. Even the guys in China and India will be displaced by lights-out robot factories. Eventually the capitalists are the last man standing with no one else having the means to purchase their goods, they scale up productivity and profit and efficiency, but they have no consumers. This means prices plummet in a race to the bottom looking for buyers. That is the future that has got people stumped. How do you create a viable economy under these conditions?
Star Trek shows an utopian society where the replicator can crank out any need an individual has, so what motivates them to participate and do something in society? We are heading that direction.
“And our children will live, Mr Beale, to see that ... perfect ... world in which there is no war nor famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company for whom all men will work to serve a common profit. In which all men will hold a share of stock.” - Arthur Jensen (Network)