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Since I help to automate factories and to develop new automated processes in general, in order to make a living I often eliminate other people’s jobs. That once weighed heavily on my mind, but I know that in order to compete in a world economy this process of worker displacement simply must happen. Orville Reddenbackers Popcorn Company now operates what’s called a “lights out plant”...I think in Colorado. In effect, during normal production no one works there so the lights in the plant are turned off. The factory becomes a big black box with raw corn, plastic, paper, oil, wood pallets, and electricity going into one end, and pallets of ready for sale popcorn coming out of the other end.
Given that some fewer numbers of new better jobs replace the old nasty ones, I was thinking about where this will lead. I see a clear separation of classes occurring though the course of this change; with fewer and fewer general labor jobs available for the average person who has no college degree or advanced training. One day even the advanced jobs may go to the robots, nanobots, and to the engineering algorithms of quantum and/or biological computers. Where does this leave the workers of the world - us?
Just shooting from the hip, it seems that what we see is that the money that once went into workers pockets is instead put into the pockets of stockholders. If left to run freely in this manner, eventually one might expect the classic two class society to emerge, with perhaps 1% of the world’s population in control of 99% of the world’s wealth. Clearly this cannot be left run amok, but even if it does civil wars and rebellions will surely act to level the systems eventually, so again, where do we land in all of this? How do we transfer the wealth once paid to workers into everyone’s pockets? The way that I see it, the factory must eventually become a public institution.
I have played with many scenarios about how this situation might evolve. What are your thoughts? Do you agree in general with the picture that I paint here? I see this as potentially one of the great changes in the social and economic structure of our soon to be “one world”. Basically, it strikes me as a second industrial revolution.
Given that some fewer numbers of new better jobs replace the old nasty ones, I was thinking about where this will lead. I see a clear separation of classes occurring though the course of this change; with fewer and fewer general labor jobs available for the average person who has no college degree or advanced training. One day even the advanced jobs may go to the robots, nanobots, and to the engineering algorithms of quantum and/or biological computers. Where does this leave the workers of the world - us?
Just shooting from the hip, it seems that what we see is that the money that once went into workers pockets is instead put into the pockets of stockholders. If left to run freely in this manner, eventually one might expect the classic two class society to emerge, with perhaps 1% of the world’s population in control of 99% of the world’s wealth. Clearly this cannot be left run amok, but even if it does civil wars and rebellions will surely act to level the systems eventually, so again, where do we land in all of this? How do we transfer the wealth once paid to workers into everyone’s pockets? The way that I see it, the factory must eventually become a public institution.
I have played with many scenarios about how this situation might evolve. What are your thoughts? Do you agree in general with the picture that I paint here? I see this as potentially one of the great changes in the social and economic structure of our soon to be “one world”. Basically, it strikes me as a second industrial revolution.