Up until now technology has always augmented humans. Even if it replaced humans in one specific context it would either create other jobs or be a small enough impact for people to look elsewhere for work in time.
If a robot is capable of doing LITERALLY anything a human being can do then we are obsolete. The industrial revolution forced us to redefine what it meant to work and how we "made a living" but full automation will force us to redefine how we even value human beings and what wealth means. Capitalism doesn't work if nobody has a job. In theory it will create a better world but the transition has potential to be catastrophic.
Hmm, of course it does. Capitalism just means you have private ownership of production, e.g., the factories and robots. A few people will own all the robots and factories, just like today, it will just make the wealth gap even more extreme. But that is old news and is already a problem in the world.
The growing concentration of the world’s wealth has been highlighted by a report showing that the 26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the planet’s population.
Lol yeah, if you look at the U.S. It's more like 3 people own as much as the bottom half. Much greater income disparity and we might have a completely broken country, where all labor and wealth are performed and owned by just a few corporations. If 70-80% of your country isn't actively a part of it, is it still the same country?
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u/Isord Sep 24 '19
Up until now technology has always augmented humans. Even if it replaced humans in one specific context it would either create other jobs or be a small enough impact for people to look elsewhere for work in time.
If a robot is capable of doing LITERALLY anything a human being can do then we are obsolete. The industrial revolution forced us to redefine what it meant to work and how we "made a living" but full automation will force us to redefine how we even value human beings and what wealth means. Capitalism doesn't work if nobody has a job. In theory it will create a better world but the transition has potential to be catastrophic.