Thursday, February 20, 2014

Automation of labor will free us

Everytime in the morning when I go to school (Anderson high school) i see the janitors hard at work.
Every single time I see them it hurts a little inside. It's hurts because I know they are worth more than that. It hurts because I know that their life from this point on will likely only further degrade.
It hurts because I know deep down inside no matter how much they try not to show it, they deeply wish they were in a better situation than they are now.

I hate seeing a potentially useful human brain be wasted on monotonous work such as janitor, lunch lady, or even cashier.

These jobs could be easily taken over by automated systems, the school would save money in the long run, and these automated systems likely could do the jobs faster and far much more effectively than humans could.

The problem is, those same people would no longer have a job, which means they would no longer have a source of income, which means they likely could not feed their families.

The thing is, this is only the case if individual jobs are automated. If ALL jobs were automated, this would no longer be a problem. Why? Since everything is automated, everything would be far much cheaper. Everything would be far much more efficient. Imagine, these large government owned farms completely automated, no humans interacting with the system for months at a time. A large greenhouse like dome covers the entire landmass. Allowing the machines to produce food all throughout the year, no matter the weather.

Imagine, a world where labor is no longer required to survive. A world where the need to feed yourself and your family does not require you to work. A world where food has become so cheap, that it is worth as much as clean water.
Imagine a world where you do things, not because you need to, but because you want to.

Most people fear that their jobs will be taken over by automated systems.
I would argue that there is nothing to fear, I would argue that taking away the need to enforce labor on others to accomplish a task is going to free humanity.

I think people are scared of this because they have never known a world where there is no need for work.

This world that I describe is In our grasp, we have the technology to do this, 
we simply need to fully accept it.