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The fact that rising automation is an issue bothers me. Automation is miraculous! Its has steadily been removing the necessity for humans to engage in drudge wo

The fact that rising automation is an issue bothers me. Automation is miraculous! Its has steadily been removing the necessity for humans to engage in drudge work. The solution is simple and obvious. Most people no longer need to work. This has probably been true for decades and is only becoming moreso. With automation, a small number of people can provide the food / water / electricity / etc. for 1000's. Everyone should be provided with the food, shelter, etc. they need for free. Thats it.. The actual problem here is remediating our obsolete society and cultural values so they are once again practical in the light of these automation developments. I'm not saying it'll be easy, there will be plenty of wrinkles, some people (eg. farmers) will still need to work. Do they get more? Do people take turns? But these are just wrinkles. Overall its very clear what the actual problem is and what we need to do. The fact that so many people now are still slaving away engaged in pointless bullshit white collar jobs is a tragedy. Such a waste of potential happiness. Also we are wasting massive amounts of resources carrying out all this pointless work, and furthering the destruction of the environment for no reason.

thebigspacefuck 7y ago
It would be great if the automation were in the hands of individuals. you need to farm? Invest in an automated tractor, combine, whatever and it will take care of your crops. Now you have free time, food to eat, and can work a second job for anything else. Instead the automation goes in the hands of large corporations and there's no relationship between what the machines produce and what people need to live. An automated boxing machine doesn't build houses or farm food for individuals. There's no more abundance to go around. You could create the relationship by taxing machines or taxing the wealthy that own them and spending that money on food and housing, but maybe people don't want to live off food stamps in government housing. Then you have economics that come into play. Are people going to have more kids since they get more food and bigger houses? Will there be an increase in crime? Will prices increase now that everyone can afford food? I'm optimistic, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  >Invest in an automated tractor, combine, whatever and it will take care of your crops. Now you have a huge loan to pay every month to pay off your farming equipment. You now need a second job and you're no better off than when you went and bought your groceries at the supermarket. I'm basically a Luddite trapped in a software engineer's body at this point. I'd like nothing better than to buy a hundred acres and become a farmer/rancher, but after taking a serious look at the financial side of things I gave up that dream. The capital costs to start up are so high that there's basically no way I would be able to do it without a loan big enough to mean that one bad year in the first decade would likely sink me financially.

thebigspacefuck 7y ago

It would be great if the automation were in the hands of individuals. you need to farm? Invest in an automated tractor, combine, whatever and it will take care of your crops. Now you have free time, food to eat, and can work a second job for anything else. Instead the automation goes in the hands of large corporations and there's no relationship between what the machines produce and what people need to live. An automated boxing machine doesn't build houses or farm food for individuals. There's no more abundance to go around. You could create the relationship by taxing machines or taxing the wealthy that own them and spending that money on food and housing, but maybe people don't want to live off food stamps in government housing. Then you have economics that come into play. Are people going to have more kids since they get more food and bigger houses? Will there be an increase in crime? Will prices increase now that everyone can afford food? I'm optimistic, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

0xffff2 7y ago
>Invest in an automated tractor, combine, whatever and it will take care of your crops. Now you have a huge loan to pay every month to pay off your farming equipment. You now need a second job and you're no better off than when you went and bought your groceries at the supermarket. I'm basically a Luddite trapped in a software engineer's body at this point. I'd like nothing better than to buy a hundred acres and become a farmer/rancher, but after taking a serious look at the financial side of things I gave up that dream. The capital costs to start up are so high that there's basically no way I would be able to do it without a loan big enough to mean that one bad year in the first decade would likely sink me financially.