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What happens when your gas station needs fewer employees because everything involved in pumping and payment is automated (as many are in California). What happe

What happens when your gas station needs fewer employees because everything involved in pumping and payment is automated (as many are in California). What happens when checkouts are all automated (Starting to Happen in Home Depot, Walmart, others..) Have you ever been to Japan? But, and here is the catch, as technology improves, the low-water mark may, in fact, start to rise above where people are capable of competing with technological solutions - then what happens? Ancient Greece - lots of slaves, ancient Rome - a whole lot of slave, in fact their economy collapsed when they ran out of slaves. The future we can look forward to is this order: 1. An economy much like modern day Japan. 2. An economy similar to ancient Greece where people busy themselves with pursuits of the mind. 3. An economy similar to ancient Rome where a whole lot of people have nothing to do and we have a vital need for bread and circuses, luckily easily taken care of by robots. 4. Machines as smart or smarter then man - Singularity!

anigbrowl 17y ago
Have you ever been to Japan? The thing is, Japan has a relatively homogenous society and a population decline, which may better equip them to deal with social problems (although they encounter their own social difficulties, eg hikikimori, freeters etc.). The same technological trends may play out very differently in a less diverse or younger population where competition for resources is more necessary, acute and violent. I'm struck by the fact that a lot of Americans whose careers were invested in manufacturing and who didn't have an exit or transfer strategy are now feeling unable to adapt and tend to become politically polarized as a result. Depending on their political affiliations they may place the blame on capitalism, globalism, China, illegal aliens, computers, or wherever...the underlying point being that there are a lot of people finding themselves in an economic dead end with limited future prospects, and they're very angry about it. Such people tend to be both pessimistic and confrontational.

anigbrowl 17y ago

Have you ever been to Japan? The thing is, Japan has a relatively homogenous society and a population decline, which may better equip them to deal with social problems (although they encounter their own social difficulties, eg hikikimori, freeters etc.). The same technological trends may play out very differently in a less diverse or younger population where competition for resources is more necessary, acute and violent. I'm struck by the fact that a lot of Americans whose careers were invested in manufacturing and who didn't have an exit or transfer strategy are now feeling unable to adapt and tend to become politically polarized as a result. Depending on their political affiliations they may place the blame on capitalism, globalism, China, illegal aliens, computers, or wherever...the underlying point being that there are a lot of people finding themselves in an economic dead end with limited future prospects, and they're very angry about it. Such people tend to be both pessimistic and confrontational.