5 ms·

> Post-work society is an inevitability if we don't destroy our planet. Is it?

gavinray 13d ago
Walk current technological progress down the road. I can't see a future in which almost every system (both physical and virtual) are not automated and optimized by autonomous entities. What do you do when everyone is out of a job? If you don't want pitchforks and riots in the streets, you give everyone UBI and housing so society doesn't collapse.
- exe34 13d ago
  Or you build bunkers and build robots to keep the riffraff out. Shock collars on the guards' necks.
  - exe34 13d ago
    For those who are as yet unaware that boot polish can be purchased cheaply in tins. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prep... > The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.
- tokioyoyo 13d ago
  > If you don't want pitchforks and riots in the streets, you give everyone UBI and housing so society doesn't collapse. As much as I’d love UBI to happen, in current geopolitiks it’s a no-go. People are not happy with having what the others have.
- tripleee 13d ago
  Autonomous police drones will likely be able to handle the pitchforkers and rioters
- bgarbiak 13d ago
  I’m all for an UBI but a future where people have no purposeful jobs, no way to actually make a real difference to anything around them, is a bleak one.
  - reeredfdfdf 13d ago
    I would love such a future. I would be perfectly content focusing on my hobbies and playing video games rest of my life. Perhaps the UBI would be sufficient even for a little bit of travel.
    - tripledry 13d ago
      I've been in such a situation for a period in my life, it gets really boring after 1-2 years. But idk, maybe it's different for you.
- greenowl 13d ago
  How do you determine who gets the house on the beach? Who gets the mountain view? Who gets stuck with the corner lot on a busy noisy road?
  - tripleee 13d ago
    It wouldn't be a redistribution of our current assets like that. I think there would be a whole lot of repurposing of these things. The beach houses, mansions, mountain views could be vacation places, or used as libraries, or simply dismantled for the materials. The "slums" on noisy roads could be eliminated entirely and used for something people don't need to be at. We'd move to a more equal distribution of assets closer to the middle line.
    - winrid 13d ago
      and anyone that disagrees you just kill them, right? That's what all good commies do. Stop hiding behind rainbows and say what you mean.
      - intrasight 13d ago
        Anyone that disagrees with the AI gets killed.
    - wartywhoa23 13d ago
      There is a reason why there was a Lenin's bust on a shelf in a Klaus Schwabb's interview.
  - Revanche1367 13d ago
    Even if in the unlikely case UBI gets implemented, there is no way payment will be equal. Why would the rich give up their positions of power? They’ll just get more security and bribe politicians, enough to build private armies and fortresses so the poor and starving can’t touch them, and have no choice but to live out their lives in squalor…we’re seemingly headed that way according to many even without pervasive autonomous machines taking away all work.
  - 13d ago
- wartywhoa23 13d ago
  Sure, this time they'll give people ponies and rainbows instead of feeding them to the next WW meatgrinder.

Walk current technological progress down the road. I can't see a future in which almost every system (both physical and virtual) are not automated and optimized by autonomous entities. What do you do when everyone is out of a job? If you don't want pitchforks and riots in the streets, you give everyone UBI and housing so society doesn't collapse.

exe34 13d ago
Or you build bunkers and build robots to keep the riffraff out. Shock collars on the guards' necks.
- exe34 13d ago
  For those who are as yet unaware that boot polish can be purchased cheaply in tins. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prep... > The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.
tokioyoyo 13d ago
> If you don't want pitchforks and riots in the streets, you give everyone UBI and housing so society doesn't collapse. As much as I’d love UBI to happen, in current geopolitiks it’s a no-go. People are not happy with having what the others have.
tripleee 13d ago
Autonomous police drones will likely be able to handle the pitchforkers and rioters
bgarbiak 13d ago
I’m all for an UBI but a future where people have no purposeful jobs, no way to actually make a real difference to anything around them, is a bleak one.
- reeredfdfdf 13d ago
  I would love such a future. I would be perfectly content focusing on my hobbies and playing video games rest of my life. Perhaps the UBI would be sufficient even for a little bit of travel.
  - tripledry 13d ago
    I've been in such a situation for a period in my life, it gets really boring after 1-2 years. But idk, maybe it's different for you.
greenowl 13d ago
How do you determine who gets the house on the beach? Who gets the mountain view? Who gets stuck with the corner lot on a busy noisy road?
- tripleee 13d ago
  It wouldn't be a redistribution of our current assets like that. I think there would be a whole lot of repurposing of these things. The beach houses, mansions, mountain views could be vacation places, or used as libraries, or simply dismantled for the materials. The "slums" on noisy roads could be eliminated entirely and used for something people don't need to be at. We'd move to a more equal distribution of assets closer to the middle line.
  - winrid 13d ago
    and anyone that disagrees you just kill them, right? That's what all good commies do. Stop hiding behind rainbows and say what you mean.
    - intrasight 13d ago
      Anyone that disagrees with the AI gets killed.
  - wartywhoa23 13d ago
    There is a reason why there was a Lenin's bust on a shelf in a Klaus Schwabb's interview.
- Revanche1367 13d ago
  Even if in the unlikely case UBI gets implemented, there is no way payment will be equal. Why would the rich give up their positions of power? They’ll just get more security and bribe politicians, enough to build private armies and fortresses so the poor and starving can’t touch them, and have no choice but to live out their lives in squalor…we’re seemingly headed that way according to many even without pervasive autonomous machines taking away all work.
- 13d ago
wartywhoa23 13d ago
Sure, this time they'll give people ponies and rainbows instead of feeding them to the next WW meatgrinder.