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I recall a similar SF story where the problem of robots replacing human labor was solved by allowing only individual ownership of robots; each person is permitted to own one robot, and contracts out the robot's labor to make a living.
You can't be serious? Oligarchs do nothing but meddle with society. How do you think they keep getting their way at our expense?
I work for a 1%'r. For many years. They are not meddling with you and yours. They are living their lives, and your life and my life and the 99%'s lives are not even on their radar.
So for now, I'll ignore the core issue (the fact that we aren't free) and entertain your scenario...
If robots with extraordinary capabilities are affordable to average people, and assuming that there is some way to keep them from being a hazard, then what will you have them do? This isn't a trivial question, because everyone will be able to greatly magnify their productivity. Will you have them build palaces, cars, roads, bridges, planes, etc for yourself? Where will they get the energy and natural resources to do all this?
Resource constraints rear their head very quickly. They are already just with the level of tech we have now.
Well the idea was the person would hire it out, not have it produce just for the person himself. Or maybe people could pool them together to work for a common cause. And they would get the energy and materials by strip mining and laying waste to the land or build a space elevator and rape some asteroids or the moon maybe. Mars is red...must have lots of iron.
I recall a similar SF story where the problem of robots replacing human labor was solved by allowing only individual ownership of robots; each person is permitted to own one robot, and contracts out the robot's labor to make a living.
Thanks for the tip. I'll give that book a try. Iain M. Banks had a similar setup in his Culture novels except the robots were sentient and they lived in a post scarcity society. It was almost a sort of socialism with robots handling the production except the robots themselves got to share in the bounty. Good books but I'm not sure human nature would allow for such a setup.
Here's where we'd get funding: cut the space exploration budget. Do we really need this to continue to eat, sleep, breathe, and find shelter and clothing on THIS planet? No.
NASA and its offshoots serve as a federal program set up to "wonder" and arrive at abstract conclusions that have no monetary (or otherwise) benefit to us on Earth. How can it help us meet our daily needs to know if it rained on Mars 10,000 years ago or if we can derive energy from moon light? How many more rockets can we afford to have blow up, how many more astronauts killed? This can not help us today or in our children's children's future. We could save billions right up front: NASA's $17.5 Billion Budget Request for 2015 Would Fund New Science Missions, Ground Flying Telescope
Eliminating NASA and distributing its annual proceeds would give every man, woman, and child in America approximately $55 per year.
But why stop there? If we disbanded the entire United States federal government and doled out the money to the people, we'd each get roughly $12,225 per year. Except that it could only happen once, because we'd have no one in charge of distributing money in future years, what with the government having been disbanded and all.
I work for a 1%'r. For many years. They are not meddling with you and yours. They are living their lives, and your life and my life and the 99%'s lives are not even on their radar.
99% of the 1% aren't even benefiting from these schemes. And of that remaining .01% not many are directly involved.
Did you work for a .001%er? One that enjoys manipulating world affairs?
People can create their own jobs. They don't need to WAIT TO BE RESCUED.
really?
Tell that to the hundreds of people I have dealt with over the years who try to do exactly that and fail and fail and fail again.
It is hard to launch a successful business even when you know what you are doing, have resources and help. It is glib bs like your comment that slows things down and muddies the water.
You can't be serious? Oligarchs do nothing but meddle with society. How do you think they keep getting their way at our expense?
Yeah. I was laughing at that one too. Lots of people think like this. Sleepwalking through life, not only avoiding the obvious, but blissfully denying it as well. One percenters don't meddle? Gee... let's see... the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Mellon Fund, the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation, George Soros, the Koch Brothers, the Rothschilds Trust, the Lucis Trust, University for World Peace... there's a couple thousand more... do we need to go on?
Tell that to the hundreds of people I have dealt with over the years who try to do exactly that and fail and fail and fail again.
It is hard to launch a successful business even when you know what you are doing, have resources and help. It is glib bs like your comment that slows things down and muddies the water.
Yeah. There were so many hundreds you didn't have time to talk to the rest who figured out how to survive. Like me. Let's just give up and wait for the one percenters to cull the herd. So... what are you going to do when starvation is the only other option? Keep dreaming of utopia where everything just magically appears for you?
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