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> I am pretty sure in the not too far future we will have enough technology that you can live off the land somewhere with the help of some robots. I don't unde

> I am pretty sure in the not too far future we will have enough technology that you can live off the land somewhere with the help of some robots. I don't understand, what stops you from doing that today?

oblio 2y ago
The fact that those robots don't exist :-)
- onemoresoop 2y ago
  Those robots want to be all your tools, with subscription and expensive maintenance that you can no longer do it yourself. And with the obvious kill switch. From tractors to other things
  - intrasight 2y ago
    I think this is the part that classic sci-fi didn't get right. It assumed that we would own the robots instead of them being owned by corporations that would rent them out. Having a robot that I don't control that's stronger than me and smarter than me in my house does not sound at all comforting.
jszymborski 2y ago
Capital, and its inequal distribution.
buckle8017 2y ago
The availability of fertile land.
- nthingtohide 2y ago
  Vertical farming / hydroponics will solve that.
  - elcritch 2y ago
    See the neo-feudalism comment below. Land and even vertical farming will be controlled by nobility / corporates in the neo-feudalism era.
    - tkjef 2y ago
      so what’s your solution then? you realize corporations are just run by people? but yes they become cold, heartless soul sucking places. yes. make your own company and do something about it then. or STFU.
      - daveguy 2y ago
        Not the GP, but I'd rather reform our government to not be exclusively for money grubbing companies and billionaires who put profits over people.
        tkjef 2y ago
        i absolutely hear you on that. it just seems too hard to do that. my solution is to make companies that are cool, fun to work at, push good values and make some money. then use that money to push for appropriate political moves like you are saying. how would you propose to reform the government? through voting? good effing luck. it will take $$$. additionally, i get really annoyed with all the complaining that is done about politics. did you vote? neat, that’s the system we have. want to do something about it? make some money. that’s the system we have. these people complaining about things instead of doing something will die complaining. coming from a liberal that is more in the center and annoyed with my overally liberal parents.
        asdf6969 2y ago
        Sometimes there just isn’t a solution or it’s not the right time. That’s what bitching is good for. Imagine being the world’s most dedicated republican in 1750s France. You could analyze the state of the world and everything required to fix it but no matter what you do there’s still decades of feudalism left and feudalism fucking sucks. That’s where we are today and these bandaid solutions like making “better” companies are like asking the King to be nicer. It changes nothing fundamentally.. Maybe your lord is a great guy and he does everything right but tomorrow his son comes into power and he could whip you. That’s what a good company is like. My new manager is an asshole who ruined my great job.
dingnuts 2y ago
the complexity and expense and necessity for expertise of today's farming machines aren't what the OP is talking about, which sounds more like something from Asimov's Caves of Steel
- Isamu 2y ago
  Yes actually robotics is still in its infancy, it needs machine learning advances to become anything like the generalized problem solving worker that farms need, especially small family farms. Source: I have worked on both robots and small farms.
  - rqtwteye 2y ago
    Agreed. But I expect huge progress in the next years/decades. It feels like a lot of things are finally coming together. The same happened in the 90s with the internet or the 2000s with cell phones. People are doing research in a lot of different areas and you see some not so great products that implement them. But then you have a point where all components come together in one really compelling product.
    - goatlover 2y ago
      But why would individuals own farms instead of big agriculture just using the robots to make food production even cheaper and more efficient? Of course some people will, but most people will live in urban areas and shop at grocery stores. That's been the trend since farming started being automated.
      - danaris 2y ago
        Because there's a very strong strain of (particularly American) thought that the Ideal Life is living off the land in a single-family house, far away from any cities and probably from most other people. And even the people who recognize that this ideal is utterly impractical can still be strongly influenced by it, such that when a set of technological advances promises the prospect of actually being able to realize it, they jump toward it with stars in their eyes. Unfortunately, it's not just impractical because of the lack of technology to support it (other obvious problems include the degree to which humans need social interaction to be healthy, the limited amount of land available, the number of things taken for granted in modern life that cannot be either grown or crafted alone, even with robotic help...). It's a fantasy, and always has been.

oblio 2y ago

The fact that those robots don't exist :-)

onemoresoop 2y ago
Those robots want to be all your tools, with subscription and expensive maintenance that you can no longer do it yourself. And with the obvious kill switch. From tractors to other things
- intrasight 2y ago
  I think this is the part that classic sci-fi didn't get right. It assumed that we would own the robots instead of them being owned by corporations that would rent them out. Having a robot that I don't control that's stronger than me and smarter than me in my house does not sound at all comforting.

jszymborski 2y ago

Capital, and its inequal distribution.

buckle8017 2y ago

The availability of fertile land.

nthingtohide 2y ago
Vertical farming / hydroponics will solve that.
- elcritch 2y ago
  See the neo-feudalism comment below. Land and even vertical farming will be controlled by nobility / corporates in the neo-feudalism era.
  - tkjef 2y ago
    so what’s your solution then? you realize corporations are just run by people? but yes they become cold, heartless soul sucking places. yes. make your own company and do something about it then. or STFU.
    - daveguy 2y ago
      Not the GP, but I'd rather reform our government to not be exclusively for money grubbing companies and billionaires who put profits over people.
      - tkjef 2y ago
        i absolutely hear you on that. it just seems too hard to do that. my solution is to make companies that are cool, fun to work at, push good values and make some money. then use that money to push for appropriate political moves like you are saying. how would you propose to reform the government? through voting? good effing luck. it will take $$$. additionally, i get really annoyed with all the complaining that is done about politics. did you vote? neat, that’s the system we have. want to do something about it? make some money. that’s the system we have. these people complaining about things instead of doing something will die complaining. coming from a liberal that is more in the center and annoyed with my overally liberal parents.
        asdf6969 2y ago
        Sometimes there just isn’t a solution or it’s not the right time. That’s what bitching is good for. Imagine being the world’s most dedicated republican in 1750s France. You could analyze the state of the world and everything required to fix it but no matter what you do there’s still decades of feudalism left and feudalism fucking sucks. That’s where we are today and these bandaid solutions like making “better” companies are like asking the King to be nicer. It changes nothing fundamentally.. Maybe your lord is a great guy and he does everything right but tomorrow his son comes into power and he could whip you. That’s what a good company is like. My new manager is an asshole who ruined my great job.

dingnuts 2y ago

the complexity and expense and necessity for expertise of today's farming machines aren't what the OP is talking about, which sounds more like something from Asimov's Caves of Steel

Isamu 2y ago
Yes actually robotics is still in its infancy, it needs machine learning advances to become anything like the generalized problem solving worker that farms need, especially small family farms. Source: I have worked on both robots and small farms.
- rqtwteye 2y ago
  Agreed. But I expect huge progress in the next years/decades. It feels like a lot of things are finally coming together. The same happened in the 90s with the internet or the 2000s with cell phones. People are doing research in a lot of different areas and you see some not so great products that implement them. But then you have a point where all components come together in one really compelling product.
  - goatlover 2y ago
    But why would individuals own farms instead of big agriculture just using the robots to make food production even cheaper and more efficient? Of course some people will, but most people will live in urban areas and shop at grocery stores. That's been the trend since farming started being automated.
    - danaris 2y ago
      Because there's a very strong strain of (particularly American) thought that the Ideal Life is living off the land in a single-family house, far away from any cities and probably from most other people. And even the people who recognize that this ideal is utterly impractical can still be strongly influenced by it, such that when a set of technological advances promises the prospect of actually being able to realize it, they jump toward it with stars in their eyes. Unfortunately, it's not just impractical because of the lack of technology to support it (other obvious problems include the degree to which humans need social interaction to be healthy, the limited amount of land available, the number of things taken for granted in modern life that cannot be either grown or crafted alone, even with robotic help...). It's a fantasy, and always has been.