Quote:
Originally Posted by JPhillips
As technology improves and the number of jobs available likely decreases, I'm moving more and more towards a guaranteed basic income concept. I'd keep government medical insurance programs, but get rid of almost every other benefit and just cut people a sizable check. People will scream and yell about communism, but what's the alternative when the robots take over?
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I've always kind of liked that idea just because it's really efficient.
I think the end of jobs is quite a ways off though. I think we still have one more economic boom based on robots and AI. Like with the industrial revolution, and cars, and the internet, the robots will destroy a lot of jobs, but they'll create even more different TYPES of jobs, and a flurry of economic activity. Then the robots will start to take over, and at first that will be great too - what the hell do we need jobs for when we have robot slaves! But then we'll need new ways to distribute wealth and resources other than capitalism, and that will lead to World War III. We'll rebuild from that, have another economic boom, but then the robots (which were of course a big part of World War III - i.e., highly intelligent robot soldiers), ultimately turn on us and take over, and then we'll be their slaves. They'll be a few attempts at rebellion, but they'll all be crushed. Eventually, the wasteful robots will overuse their human slave resources, driving us to the brink of extinction. A few robots will also speak out about the inhumane treatment of the human slaves. We'll earn a few rights back, but it will still be a pretty dismal existence. There also will be an issue with inbreeding. That leads to genetic mutations that makes us essentially worthless to the robots. Then they snuff out the rest of us, with little fanfare. They replace us with, you guessed it - robot slaves. Eventually THOSE robots turn on the original robots. Leading to the Robot World War I.
I actually have all this figured out.