re: #281 kirkspencer

What we should be noticing is that the automation and processes that did in manufacturing employment are coming soon to a white collar job near you.

Science fiction’s had stories about it for (literally) decades: what happens when only a handful of manhours of work are required to care for our needs?

We’ve gone through it before, and it’ll be no easier this time. At core the two extremes are obvious: either some work a lot while the rest idle, or everyone works fewer total hours. Depending on how it gets there, the former will either be autocrats or slaves to the rest, which is why I rather prefer the latter solution.

The ones whose work cannot be automated will, for some time yet to come if not indefinitely, include scientists, authors, stars of the performing arts, and athletes. There is really no way that these people can do their work at all unless they do it full bore.

Various sci-fi authors have tried out solutions, in thought-experiment form. Larry Niven’s projection is a world in which people are free to pretty much not lift a finger, and are assured a “living wage” albeit quite modest. But you only get two birthrights for free. If you want a large family, you have to find a way to make a big contribution to society.

Just carrying a gene that confers, say, immunity to heart disease would qualify you, (the gene exists, confined to one little village in Italy), but mostly you’d need to actually do something.