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Does an ageing decreasing population matter with coming influx of the robots? What will the impact be on countries like Greece, Japan, and even China?

esafak 2y ago
If they are cost effective, going to a retirement home or getting an aide will become a choice. Elderly care is expensive; I wish those robots existed already. In much of the world, this is a task that falls to the offspring since the social infrastructure is not up to the task. And naturally this artificially increases the fertility rate; people have children just to make sure they are taken of in their old age. Once the robots arrive, this will no longer be a necessity, so robotic care is arguably the morally superior option since it does not involve using people as a means to an end. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/persons-means/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/persons-means/
wpietri 2y ago
If the robots come. Robots have been coming soon for an awfully long time.
colechristensen 2y ago
Automation historically hasn’t really changed the amount of work people have to put in, other mechanisms have changed that. An aging population means excess resources have to flow from the young to the old.
aegypti 2y ago
The shrinking tax base servicing a growing retiree class will now be competing with automated labor that doesn’t consume any goods or services.
- nine_zeros 2y ago
  TaxGPT
  - aegypti 2y ago
    Essentially. Quite fitting China, Japan, Italy, and Greece might be some of the first thrown back into palace economies.
NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
> Does an ageing decreasing population matter with coming influx of the robots? What will the impact be on countries like Greece, Japan Both of these countries/ethnicities are functionally extinct. It's no secret... I worked for an insurance company 5 years ago, and at one of the company luncheons a C-level was telling jokes about how they were all betting amongst themselves when the last Japanese person would be born. So, if you like humans, and by this I mean you want them to continue to exist into the indefinite future, then all of this should alarm you. At no point in the future will the last few Greek women think "hey, let's have at least a population-stabilizing 2.1 fertility rate again". China's on an even more unhinged course. If they were to allow it to continue naturally (if that's even the right word, given the recent one child policy), they might become extinct even faster than other countries. But there will be forced pregnancy policies (even camps) within the next decade or two, I think. You can decide for yourself whether any of this "matters".

esafak 2y ago

If they are cost effective, going to a retirement home or getting an aide will become a choice. Elderly care is expensive; I wish those robots existed already. In much of the world, this is a task that falls to the offspring since the social infrastructure is not up to the task. And naturally this artificially increases the fertility rate; people have children just to make sure they are taken of in their old age. Once the robots arrive, this will no longer be a necessity, so robotic care is arguably the morally superior option since it does not involve using people as a means to an end. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/persons-means/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/persons-means/

wpietri 2y ago

If the robots come. Robots have been coming soon for an awfully long time.

colechristensen 2y ago

Automation historically hasn’t really changed the amount of work people have to put in, other mechanisms have changed that. An aging population means excess resources have to flow from the young to the old.

aegypti 2y ago

The shrinking tax base servicing a growing retiree class will now be competing with automated labor that doesn’t consume any goods or services.

nine_zeros 2y ago
TaxGPT
- aegypti 2y ago
  Essentially. Quite fitting China, Japan, Italy, and Greece might be some of the first thrown back into palace economies.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago

> Does an ageing decreasing population matter with coming influx of the robots? What will the impact be on countries like Greece, Japan Both of these countries/ethnicities are functionally extinct. It's no secret... I worked for an insurance company 5 years ago, and at one of the company luncheons a C-level was telling jokes about how they were all betting amongst themselves when the last Japanese person would be born. So, if you like humans, and by this I mean you want them to continue to exist into the indefinite future, then all of this should alarm you. At no point in the future will the last few Greek women think "hey, let's have at least a population-stabilizing 2.1 fertility rate again". China's on an even more unhinged course. If they were to allow it to continue naturally (if that's even the right word, given the recent one child policy), they might become extinct even faster than other countries. But there will be forced pregnancy policies (even camps) within the next decade or two, I think. You can decide for yourself whether any of this "matters".