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What makes you think the future will be better than the present? If history is the judge then it is more likely that we will end up in a situation where 10-20%
by pfisch 13y ago
What makes you think the future will be better than the present? If history is the judge then it is more likely that we will end up in a situation where 10-20% of the people have everything and everyone else lives in super poverty relative to them. Most of history and even the present reflect that situation. Also it will require far fewer people to have absolute systems of control than it ever has before.
Or AI could take over singularity style.
I don't know why you assume the future will be better than the past. So far it honestly seems more like computers and robots have created a situation where most of the middle class is now useless to society. We seem to be reverting back to a system where there is only an upper class and a massive pool of peasants. For us to really replace the higher end of the workforce will require a singularity type of event.
Of all the possible futures it really takes a lot of optimism to not see some kind of dystopia.
Just look at the current privacy situation. Look at what the NSA is doing. Look at how google and facebook have been allowed to build a massive database of every action that we engage in with technology, and they are then allowed to sell it to 3rd parties without most people even knowing they do this and sharing none of the profits with us for selling our information. That is the reality of the future. Add largely automated robot armies and much more powerful systems of control plus finite resources.
- icebraining 13y agoI don't know why you assume the future will be better than the past. 50 years there were full blown dictatorships in Europe and South America, dozens of millions were dieing in China, and Soviet officials in submarines were blocking the launch of nuclear missils. Oh, and Vietnam war, Kent State, etc. 70 years ago we were in a world war, smashing half of Europeu to pieces and blowing up full cities in Japan, plus, you know, the holocaust. 80 years ago there was the Great Depression, and all of its effects. My grandmother, in an western European country, lived without electricty, running water, education and barely enough food. And this is just a self- serving European perspective written in five minutes; there were plenty of horrors I probably don't even know about. The NSA? it doesn't come even close.
- yummyfajitas 13y agoIf history is the judge then it is more likely that we will end up in a situation where 10-20% of the people have everything and everyone else lives in super poverty relative to them. The key word here is "relative to them". On the other hand, if history is the judge, then the people living in relative poverty will still be vastly richer than most people alive today. Dystopia? That depends on how strongly one feels envy. Personally, I can enjoy driving my flying car and stem cell therapy until age 100, even if some rich guy has nanotech rejuvenation allowing him to live to 1000 on his spaceship.