Jed sez: ...
> In a century or two, food and other necessities of > life will be so cheap it will not be worth charging > people for them. I suppose that food will cost ten cents > a day or so (discounting inflation). It will hardly matter > if a person wants to do labor for that money. We will just > give him the money if he does not feel like working, just > as we now give people a library card for free. It will not > be worth collecting or keeping track of such trivial sums. > Robot labor will be thousands of times cheaper than human > labor, including most "intellectual" labor. Today, one > farmer feeds 80 people. In a hundred years, there will be > no farmers at all. Food factory production will be > completely automated. One food factory robot that costs a > few hundred dollars (discounting inflation) will feed a > thousand people. People will have to get used to living > like today's idle rich people, devoting most of their lives > to education or hobbies or what-have-you. ... While predicted futuristic life styles of leisure might sound idyllic there is a deadly side to this equation which must be avoided at all costs, particularly the creation of a welfare state where all of our basic needs are automatically provided no matter what we indulge in - or not indulge in as the case may be. As we take advantage of what technology offers so will the choices to pursue our unique flavor of "personal happiness" multiply. I'm sure discussions concerning the "pursuit of happiness" are likely to be contentious as there will be differing opinions on what will be allowed and not allowed within society. Complicating matters, while in the midst of our debates concerning the pursuits of our "personal happiness" society begins to suspect that deep down they are essentially nothing more than drones in the bee hive there will be little motivation for many to self-improve. If that becomes the general consensus our civilization will end up moribund. No doubt these kinds of scenarios have been written up countless times in futuristic SF novels where the garnered fruits of a particular brand of a hi-tec "utopia" turns out not to be as advertised - at least according to the author. I'd love to retire right now so that I can pursue my "personal happiness" full-time. Hell! I wish I could have retired twenty years ago!. OTOH, not working, feeling like I have no purpose, feeling like I'm not making any valuable contributions to the world I was born into is a far worse prison sentence than being force to punch the time clock five times a week. I remain absolutely convinced that if we are to survive we MUST continue pursuing real challenges in our lives, not just ritualistic and/or cooked-up challenges. There MUST always be obstacles to overcome. Playing golf doesn't do it for me. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
