The Fundamental Question

The fundamental question in the future is whether the people will own the AI and robotics that do all the work or whether a few billionaires will own them. The answer is freedom vs slavery, life vs death, human flourishing or human extinction. Everything else is secondary. The hard reality is that the economic model where people trade labor for income is rapidly becoming extinct in the face of exponentially growing AI and robotics. There will come a time when businesses won’t be able to economically compete if they hire humans because all of their competitors have already slashed this costly expense. Once unemployment hits above 30% or so, the entire economic system will collapse. Those in power will seek to first depopulate as much as possible, both by promoting self-sterilization and by more ugly means. The survivors will be under constant surveillance, forced to live in “smart” cities, which are sold to the public as “green” and “safer” than living in rural areas. CBDC’s will control how you spend your money. Cash will be abolished. Carbon trackers will limit what you can do, and how much air conditioning you can use. A social credit system will punish you for saying things the government doesn’t like. Everyone will depend upon a UBI or universal basic income for survival. Total dependence will be the norm. Most people will trade their freedom for the false promise of safety and security. Most won’t resist the creeping authoritarianism which will increase more and more over the next few decades. Eventually it will be illegal to live anywhere but smart cities. Eating real meat will be prohibited, that will only be for the elites. People will be forced to consume lab grown meat, bugs, and other frankenfoods. If you resist the authoritarianism your neighbors will avoid you because they will be threatened with social credit score reductions.

People will be assigned jobs in different zones. You won’t be permitted to travel outside of your zone except for special occasions. People won’t be permitted to drive their own cars, let alone own their own cars. “It’s too dangerous” they will say. EV powered self-driving cars that can be disabled remotely by the authorities in case you are designated a “terrorist” will be the norm. Gas vehicles will be banned under the guise of “fighting climate change.” Everyone will depend upon the grid for their source of power. No alternative forms of energy will be permitted, because those empower individuals. Energy will be entirely centralized. You will spend your day at work with every movement and action being recorded. Taylorism at its finest. When you get home from work, you will be permitted to engage in leisure a few hours with your VR googles, which are now supposed to take the place of travel and visiting with family.

A small remnant of people will decide to move to the mountains and live off-grid. They will choose to disengage from technology to have their freedom. But this will only be permitted until about 2050 or so. Then the government won’t permit it, because it will be considered a “bad example” for others. Drones and militarized police will be sent to kill homesteaders. Unless there is a revolution in America, it is inevitable.

The only way to avoid this terrible fate is for people to embrace the collective ownership of the means of production—the AI and robots. The likelihood of them resisting is low, however. After seeing the genocide in Gaza there is literally nothing they find worth fighting for. They don’t have enough love in their hearts and solidarity to decide to fight for their own survival. Most people aren’t gonna make it.