I see nothing but negatives, on this side of eternity. If this were heaven and the New Earth, I would be a fanatic about this, because we would be freed up from labour to pursue our passions.
However, I believe the universal basic income, they are selling us on to get AI in control of society, will only be temporary and they will get around to cutting off support for everybody but the chosen.
America is the modern day Rome and that’s where Rome went in its last days. The elites supported the people, until they didn’t.
” that’s where Rome went in its last days. The elites supported the people, until they didn’t.”
well, that was the Roman republic - pre-Augustus.
they got so many slaves in the 150 to 50 BC that the elite used slaves to farm their lands, eliminating the farmers who were the bread and butter of the Roman republic.
Do you mean the republic?
because the Principate lived on for another 300 years until Diocletian when it became the Dominate.
The principate (most of classical single Rome) decayed in the 3rd century due to
1. over-extension under Trajan
2. Conversely, it was no longer a “resource grabbing” empire and ran out of enemies to grab land from
3. Internal demonization and economic collapse
4. No defined political continuation - unlike the Republic
The principate was replaced by the Dominate - where the “Emperor” gave up being called “Princeps” i.e. “First citizen” and gave up the pretense of being “one of the people” but became clearly “God’s representative on earth” - L’etat c’est moi!
The Dominate survived for 1100 years. it collapsed due to internal infighting. It had a number of external enemies, but had survived the Germanics, the Avars, the huns, the Slavs, the Bulgars, the Arabs, etc. but did not create a stable dynastic succession.
And, as an amateur historian, I dispute the comparison between the Roman empire and the USA today. I don’t think it is a valid comparison.
While this comparison has been made by scholars, commentators, and even in books like Cullen Murphy’s Are We Rome? (2007), there are little to no parallels.
Rome was an agrarian, slave-based empire without modern technology, democracy, or global institutions. America has a resilient economy, innovation (e.g., tech sector), and democratic mechanisms.
While inequality has risen, elites still fund philanthropy, taxes, and social programs (e.g., via billionaires like Bill Gates or government initiatives). No widespread “abandonment” akin to Roman elites fleeing cities has occurred
The better parallel is to the fall of the Roman REPUBLIC, not the Principate or Dominate.