I do not know if I will be alive to see it, but it is on the way, and now is the time to start thinking about it.
The advent of cheap robotic labour is on the horizon. It is peeking over the brim and coming down toward us all.
There are many advancements in manufacturing that have happened in the last twenty years, and the pace at which robots are creeping into the work force is heading for a pace that will astonish anyone who does not take the time to think about it.
Computing power is getting very cheap.
Energy supply is getting cheap.
Programming is getting both very good and very cheap.
What do you think will happen to the world when many of the general labour and service sector jobs are automated?
When solar panels are installed by robots?
When fruit and berries are picked by machines?
When nearly all farming is done by a robot?
And most cooking?
And cleaning?
What jobs will be left for the average human to do?
Now as dire as many parts of that can look, it could be just as easily freeing.
We could be looking at a future where the majority of people who do work are doing so because they want to. That they feel a drive to be great at something.
We could have a world devoid of hunger and poverty, where our sole goal as a society is to make everyone's life better. Where the ideal of 'no child left behind' is both achievable and part of what we as the humans of this earth choose to do.
It is a pleasant thought but not one we can reach within our current economic and geo-political set up. The concept of a gaurenteed basic income could be a start, but that alone is fraught with danger as well.
And how will we ensure any of it is for the good of all?
I think we are entering a time of upheaval and one for great potential. But the potential is just as much for a dystopian future as a utopian. And the potential for a cataclysmic war is all too real.
The number one thing I think that every single being in the world will need to dwell on in the near future is how much do I need to make me happy? And although it is natural to want more stuff and things, does any of it make me happy? And what can I do to ensure that not just my happiness is there but that of my children and my neighbour's children is also insured.
I accumulated a lot of things, I have freely given up a lot of my possessions. That did not make me happy.
I traveled a lot seeing places
and parts of this world. That made me happy. I
have had many interactions with friends and family, feeling the joy
of shared experiences and fun times. That truly made me happy.
Personally I believe that the society free of strife is not one that we will ever achieve, but one that strives to maximize the freedom of the burden of work, while maximizing the ability to seek out joy is one that the world should aim for.
The major thing that stands between all of us and that vision is not money, and not status, but the value we attach to money and status.
And I am not saying we should do away with either one, but that we need to find something to move money out of its primary position and replace it with something else.
And I have no clue what that something else is.
Do you?
