A pollyanna vision of the arc of technology might be that if robots can do all the work at higher levels of productivity than people, then in theory everybody could be wealthy, enjoying the fruits of automated labour. People are then liberated from economic and social necessity to fully explore life; to hopefully find true beauty, love and self-actualization – instead of struggling, worrying and fighting over limited resources to survive.
Looking through the attic I came across something I wrote a while back, that was a bit less pollyanna:
“School is typically a training in becoming a drone, with extra badges and gold stars for conformity to the set standards of assimilation into the machinery. The next life stage is to be oiled up with the particular drugs of choice to desensitize and negotiate the drone bot through the system, for the waiting skip at the end (unless not already fallen off into insanity).”
Made me laugh. Maybe I had watched too much Star Trek.
