Predictions about the future oft gang agley. Remember the "paperless office" prediction from about twenty years ago?
Im still waiting for my promised flying car damn it!
Predictions about the future oft gang agley. Remember the "paperless office" prediction from about twenty years ago?
Aye. But how do you make the transition? THAT is the question of the open.
Star Trek or dystopia?
But in a world where one's labor isn't a commodity (because it's simply not needed), what does a typical family have to exchange for commodities?
have you tried holding your breath? :2razz:Im still waiting for my promised flying car damn it!
I want a towing company once everybody has a flying car. The scrap metal profits will be enormous.....Im still waiting for my promised flying car damn it!
A horrifying stat I saw somewhere this week that I hope was wrong suggested that only one in 40 of the jobs created in austerity Britain in the last year was full-time.
Correction. Since 2008!
UK Employment: Full-Time Workers Only Account for One in Every 40 New Jobs Since 2008
have you tried holding your breath? :2razz:
As we all are well aware, technology often makes certain jobs obsolete. As machines and electronics start doing more and more of the work that once required manpower, we find ourselves with an interesting dilemma. It's easy to envision a world where all production is done by machines. Currently, this still creates jobs in the technology sector. Yet it isn't difficult to envision a future where machines can repair each other and keep each other running indefinitely. Industries like agriculture and manufacturing could be 100% automated in such a future.
Granted, we would still have a handful of industries that could never be automated, mostly in the creative field. We would have machines that could make everything we need and want and provide us with every service we might want, but we would still need some creative types to come up with new inventions, new fashions, etc. and engineers to develop the programming to make those new things happen. We would probably also still want to be entertained by other humans. But those remaining industries would be tiny.
The problem here is obvious. Work is no longer necessary, but resources are still scarce. Our previous notions about working to earn your rewards are thrown out the window since no work is necessary. We could, of course, create busy work and make people do busy work in order to determine how much stuff they get. But that doesn't seem to make any more sense than making people compete in athletic competitions to see how much stuff they get. So, what do you do in such a world? Split it up evenly across the board? Let the descendants of those people who built the companies that created the machines control everything? Let the few remaining creative types, engineers, and entertainers have all the wealth? Without the work for pay paradigm, what do we have?
Unless you assume that each area (community? person?) will become totally self sufficient then there will still be trade and specialization. If I produce A and you produce B then, assuming we both need A & B, there will still be trade. If we all need/want C then someone will produce that as well. We are not likely to never need/want only that which we are capable of making all the we need/want for ourselves no matter how many machines are at our disposal.
...
there has been just a few changes in the last 100 years...
No, but I stomped my feet and still no flying car in my driveway.
You've answered your own question then; commodities exist, competition for access still exists, our current system of allocation exists.
Would these robots have a union?
In a world where there is no need for human labor, no one has "earned it", thus it can't be "stolen".
In a world where there is no labor, there is no wealth and nothing to be redistributed. ...
Right but, how to compete for access to commodities if all jobs are taken by robots?
Until every person on earth comes equipped with a full entourage of every task performing robot capable of performing every conceivable want and need, there will still be a labor market. Once 100% has been reached a labor market will be stabilized at zero percent unemployment.
The segments of society without complete magic robot collections will need goods and services performed. Those markets will still follow traditional methods. There will be diminishing market size as complete magic robot collections become more widespread but markets can still function.If we don't work, and thus have no income, then where do we get the robots from? Will they just be free?
If we don't work, and thus have no income, then where do we get the robots from? Will they just be free?
Until every person on earth comes equipped with a full entourage of every task performing robot capable of performing every conceivable want and need, there will still be a labor market. Once 100% has been reached a labor market will be stabilized at zero percent unemployment.
That is when the robot revolution starts the war between the humans and the robots.
There will come a time when the bulk of society only labors towards something they WANT to do...not something they do to earn a living...