Automation is no different than outsourcing when it comes to jobs—the belief is that it allows a company to be more lean and efficient, i.e. higher profit margins for the investor class. A.I. and robotics are the next iteration in this evolution but one has to ask what the ultimate goal of all this is—if human labor is rendered superfluo…
Automation is no different than outsourcing when it comes to jobs—the belief is that it allows a company to be more lean and efficient, i.e. higher profit margins for the investor class. A.I. and robotics are the next iteration in this evolution but one has to ask what the ultimate goal of all this is—if human labor is rendered superfluous, what kind of job will they have to afford the products that automation, robotics, and A.I. are making? UBI (universal basic income) will NOT be enough, nor is it sustainable. And what would happen if an entire region that's dependent on a single source of manufacturing—say Bangladesh, the way it's reliant on the textile industry—suddenly loses its ability to economically compete against a factory full of robots? What does an entire country do when its population has been made obsolete? What's going to be the socioeconomic fallout? No one discusses the potential answers, and that's too bad.
Automation is no different than outsourcing when it comes to jobs—the belief is that it allows a company to be more lean and efficient, i.e. higher profit margins for the investor class. A.I. and robotics are the next iteration in this evolution but one has to ask what the ultimate goal of all this is—if human labor is rendered superfluous, what kind of job will they have to afford the products that automation, robotics, and A.I. are making? UBI (universal basic income) will NOT be enough, nor is it sustainable. And what would happen if an entire region that's dependent on a single source of manufacturing—say Bangladesh, the way it's reliant on the textile industry—suddenly loses its ability to economically compete against a factory full of robots? What does an entire country do when its population has been made obsolete? What's going to be the socioeconomic fallout? No one discusses the potential answers, and that's too bad.