On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 11:01 AM, Edmund Storms <[email protected]>wrote:
For example, people look forward to having their work done by robots but > each robot puts several people out of work, who now cannot afford to buy a > robot or anything else. In spite of this problem becoming obvious, the > right wing fights the solution. What does that say about the future? > I think these movies capture the general direction pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner Well worth seeing. Since the agricultural revolution, economic scarcity has been an artificial problem. It persists because of ideology, lack of vision and political gridlock. As automation continues, it will reach unseemly levels. European countries will have the good sense to address it long before the political will arises within the US, where we have infinite patience for the suffering of our fellow citizens and little in the way of a shared understanding about how to move forward. I doubt things will get much better in the US in any of our lifetimes. It would be something else to see Americans emigrating en mass to Ireland, Italy and eastern bloc countries in order to make a better life for themselves and their children. I assume cold fusion will make things worse initially, because of the extent to which it will facilitate automation. Eric
