I saw this article linked at Metafilter.com:
Robotic Freedom. I'll agree, robots and hyperautomation are an interesting topic, but this author, Marshall Brain, though he may know
How Stuff Works, he doesn't have the faintest inkling what the real effects of displacing 80% of the world work force.
First, an economy isn't just the flow of capital - it's a form or control. So, if literally millions of US workers get dumped and have no hope of ever regaining employment, do you think they're just going to sit around? They're coming to see YOU, Mr. Boss Man.
Let's return to the Common, shall we? I, as an English Lord of the Manor, want not just to profit from the work of the serfs, but to control them, keep them from getting out of hand. I can do that if I can keep them employeed and just above miserable. Make them too happy and they'll want more. Make them too miserable and they'll want EVERYTHING.
To keep them employeed, I need to limit their alternate means of employment or sustanance and provide them with a wage that is only enough to keep them buying from the company store. That's why the Common must be controlled, or enclosed, preferably.
Getting ahead is bad and a middle class is intolerable.
So, the perfect robots are developed, thanks, we don't need you any more. Good for business? Not exactly. Who the hell is going to buy your wares? Other companies with their own robot workforces? This isn't a minor economic disruption that a few new welfare laws will take care of. This is a completely new economy. Sorry, Mr. Brain, even super-taxing the super-rich ain't gonna cut it.
And disruptive it will be. But I'm not sure it's a bad thing.
To let my imagination run wild, I think we have a better than even chance of "blooming" the internet before they put in the Robotic Walmart greeters. Blooming? Yes, blooming.
The internet isn't a place, it's a group of interconnected computers and the associated networks. It's not intelligent, and it's not owned, but it is regulated and monitored. It's only a first step, the caterpillar. Imagine, if you will, an explosion of nanotech that makes the internet all the things it's currently not: a place (everywhere), intelligent, and unownable. Now, what would life be like if energy were free, access to information like the air (literally the air), and all of ones basic needs available to all. Food and shelter a true instant gratification. What exactly would most people need to work for?
This is the robotic revolution Mr. Brain speaks of, but from the ground up. Workers would displace themselves. Populations would shift and move without respect to jobs. The need for labor would vanish, but also the market economy. If this blooming is benevolent, governments would cease to function in their current state as well.
I for one welcome the arrival of our new robotic masters.
