re: #81 Teukka

That’s really the unanswered question in my mind for the next thirty years. Previously, when the top 0.1% have hurt everyone else too much, there is restlessness and a correction of some kind, whether revolution or political or cultural change that progresses humanity until the next neo-feudal nobility finds a way to accumulate more at the expense of everyone else again. They have tried so many methods of control of the populace to keep their power over the centuries - religion, authoritarianism, bread and circuses, etc. Ultimately all have failed.

I wonder, however, in this new connected world, is there now a way to brainwash enough people all of the time to maintain permanent control? That’s the ultimate endpoint of the current media model as it evolves. No more corrections, just the overlords in their ivory towers and the stinking masses, forever.

Alternatively, as automation takes over and the production power of people is no longer required to maintain the elite, will they just stop caring if the populace starves and dies, leaving more resources for the wealthy? That’s also possible, but less likely I think. Mostly because it is in human nature to want to lord over someone. If there’s nobody to rule over, all that wealth and power doesn’t mean much when everyone has as much as you.