[quote=XBoxBoy][
How this plays out is anyone’s guess. But personally I think that capitalism as an economic system doesn’t work in the future. (I know that sounds extreme, and in general I’m a believer that things are getting better, not a doomsayer so don’t take it as some pronouncement about the end is nigh.)
My suggestion is to think of it this way. Robots/computers filling many/most of the jobs means lots of low cost production. When you think of it that way, honestly it’s not a problem but a good thing. However, now the question comes as you point out, how do we distribute this production? My personal fear is that we (all us humans) go through a very difficult time politically as we transition from our current system of capitalism to some other system. How that plays out, how smoothly vs how chaotic that change is, what are the details of that new economic order? Beats me. But the world has changed in the past, and it will change again in the future.
One thing I would stress however is that pronouncements about how this coming wave of robots and computers plays out is largely a guessing game. And much of it will happen without people seeing it coming.
XBoxBoy[/quote]
So true about future just being a guessing game and Bill can be as right/wrong as any of us could be.
Your note about capitalism got me thinking: maybe it was a creature of industrial revolution and might have to give space up for another system once the automated productivity skyrockets.
In recent memory, none of us saw what the first iphone was really going bring out in the next few years in terms of mobility & productivity. so yes, changes sneak up upon us but it is always fun to play the guessing game!
I will stick my neck out for this prediction: Nobody will be able to stop the coming wave of massive increase in production. The consequences of that are the ones which are hard to predict.
