Human beings are terrible at governing each other.\u00a0 Admittedly, there have been short periods of time when men have managed to flourish for even a few centuries at a time.\u00a0 But over the long stretch things inevitably break down and human society returns to ugly oppression.\u00a0 The Athenians managed maybe fifty years of decent self-rule under Pericles and his successors.\u00a0 The Romans lost their republic to the greed of their oligarchs and had to settle for the rule of the emperors.\u00a0 But they were a pretty awful lot.\u00a0 Even the five \u201cgood emperors\u201d managed about eighty-four years (96 AD to 180 AD) of decent rule.\u00a0 But even during this period most Roman subjects were slaves employed as field hands on the industrial scale agriculture that the rich controlled.<\/p>\n
As for ourselves, we\u2019ve done rather better than worse.\u00a0 The last two hundred and fifty years have been less oppressive and freer than almost any time and place in human history.\u00a0 But there were very special circumstances.\u00a0 The rich were so preoccupied with benefitting from the populating of an entire continent that they didn\u2019t have a chance to thoroughly exploit the human beings under their control.\u00a0 And then the industrial revolution made it incredibly lucrative to turn us into mass consumers and so they tolerated the idea of allowing us to be middle class while that process was ongoing.\u00a0 So far, so good.<\/p>\n
But both of those conditions have ceased to be ameliorating factors.\u00a0 North America has been parceled out.\u00a0 The money to be made by selling Americans consumer lifestyle improvements like automobiles and washing machines has sort of petered out.\u00a0 Paying Americans to build washing machines has become horribly outdated since Asian labor became a thing.\u00a0 The oligarchs really don\u2019t see much profit in trying to maintain a middle class here anymore.\u00a0 So, I think we\u2019re reaching the end of our exceptionalism.\u00a0 What now?<\/p>\n
The way I figure, the usual ending to this story is feudalism.\u00a0 The rich band together and the poor become slaves of one stripe or another.\u00a0 Or worse, our overlords dispense with us altogether.\u00a0 Robots are just so much more efficient and cost effective.\u00a0 Sure, a few human slaves to take care of anything that robots can\u2019t do as well as people but definitely a very small number of living beings.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s what they\u2019re working toward.\u00a0 But can we find a way around that?<\/p>\n
Well, one way around it would be to burn it all down.\u00a0 If all the information age infrastructure was destroyed and even the knowledge of it thrown away, well, then we could buy ourselves quite a bit of time.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say we made the integrated circuit a forbidden fruit.\u00a0 Basically 1940s technology only.\u00a0 We\u2019d have to have a law enforcement department whose only job was to maintain the prohibition.\u00a0 And it would have to be worldwide.\u00a0 But for the sake of argument let\u2019s say that the revolution is global in scale.\u00a0 So, mankind decides to throw away automation.\u00a0 Then what?\u00a0 After all, slavery preceded computers by thousands of years.\u00a0 It\u2019s human nature that we\u2019re up against.\u00a0 Well, there you are.\u00a0 Whether we\u2019re eliminated in favor of robotic slaves or just made into slaves ourselves, it is human nature to oppress our fellow men.\u00a0 It\u2019s just who we are.<\/p>\n
Of course, there is the old \u201cThe Day the Earth Stood Still\u201d angle.\u00a0 Instead of getting rid of computers we could put all-powerful and incorruptible robots in charge of us and allow them to fairly maintain a government for us.\u00a0 Gort would make sure each of us was given a salary to live on and also makes sure we do our assigned work.\u00a0 And with his staggering intellect he\u2019ll make sure that society is arranged so that the whole range of human capabilities is optimally utilized so that everyone is stimulated and no one is abused by the system.<\/p>\n
Sounds great, right?\u00a0 Sure, it does, it\u2019s the ideal of socialism but powered by artificial intelligence.\u00a0 Could it be done?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But I think we may be about to find out soon.\u00a0 This is what I suspect is lurking around the corner.\u00a0 And in a way, I hope it works.\u00a0 After all, humans don\u2019t want perfection.\u00a0 They just want a solution that is good enough.\u00a0 And maybe our present capability is an AI that\u2019s good enough.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Human beings are terrible at governing each other.\u00a0 Admittedly, there have been short periods of time when men have managed to flourish for even a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35,599,5092],"class_list":["post-35354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-future","tag-future-predictions","tag-the-day-the-earth-stood-still"],"yoast_head":"\n