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> It is like vacation, forever. I guess that's one way to look at death from malnutrition, exposure or untreated illness. We can wax optimistic about what pos

> It is like vacation, forever. I guess that's one way to look at death from malnutrition, exposure or untreated illness. We can wax optimistic about what post-automation life could be like, but let's be honest: right now, unless you are an investor in companies that have automated or provide automation solutions, you are in absolutely no position to see 'vacation, forever' on the horizon for yourself or your children in a post-automation world. We should be frantically trying to do everything possible to fix that, however, because automation will be competing against the wage-labor relationship that the majority of people are dependent on.

SimpleXYZ 10y ago
If society can change from taxes on tea being too high, it can change when unemployment is 91%.
- darpa_escapee 10y ago
  The revolution started from tea taxes being too high also had the backing of the richest people at the time in what would become the US. The automation revolution also has the backing of the richest people in the world. I don't think a populist movement was behind the revolution nor here.
fondry34 10y ago
Either we fix that, true, or there will be just far less people after a while. In the meantime, starvation may be a common "disease" in 1st world as well, just as it is already in the 3rd world. It's just that automation needs many people. It is to fix the problem of mass production. If there are no consumer masses, there is no need for mass production and thus no need for automation. But maybe the masses are just turned from consumers into products. That is what Google and Facebook already do today. Don't know If I would like to live in such a world. Already now I don't like it to be a Google product. Is that the choice, between starvation in freedom, or being nothing but a product, a second order slave?
- michaelmrose 10y ago
  If people are starving in the street they will just tear down the nation around them on their way out sounds like a non survival strategy.

SimpleXYZ 10y ago

If society can change from taxes on tea being too high, it can change when unemployment is 91%.

darpa_escapee 10y ago
The revolution started from tea taxes being too high also had the backing of the richest people at the time in what would become the US. The automation revolution also has the backing of the richest people in the world. I don't think a populist movement was behind the revolution nor here.

fondry34 10y ago

Either we fix that, true, or there will be just far less people after a while. In the meantime, starvation may be a common "disease" in 1st world as well, just as it is already in the 3rd world. It's just that automation needs many people. It is to fix the problem of mass production. If there are no consumer masses, there is no need for mass production and thus no need for automation. But maybe the masses are just turned from consumers into products. That is what Google and Facebook already do today. Don't know If I would like to live in such a world. Already now I don't like it to be a Google product. Is that the choice, between starvation in freedom, or being nothing but a product, a second order slave?

michaelmrose 10y ago
If people are starving in the street they will just tear down the nation around them on their way out sounds like a non survival strategy.