>> It doesn't have to happen, though.
I don't disagree with a lot of your post. The general advancements in nanosciences, materials, robotics, medicine, etc. are all reaching points where they can have serious consequences for our social, political and economic systems. Life expectancies will obviously increase substantially over the coming 50 years. The number of jobs available will decline substantially due to advances in robotics, materials, and nanosciences. There will be no time for legislative intransigence in an environment where the pace of technological advancement is increasing at accelerated paces.
It isn't about sharing, though. Perhaps the most important thing that could be done in our country today to prepare for these changes is to shitcan the current university system in favor of a modern day educational system that is accessible and affordable for all. But no one is talking about that.
In the next 50 years, people who are uneducated are going to be left behind. Eventually, it may become feasible to "share" as you say -- but we are far, far away from leaving the capitalist system behind, because as of now it is highly efficient and there really is nothing to replace it with. If we become aggressive in taking money from the wealthy and giving it to the poor, it serves to further divide the interests.
Our problems are complex, and it isn't as simple as, "we're going to take some money from the haves and deliver it to the have-nots." It will be essential to find ways the have-nots can contribute in some meaningful way as a condition for receiving that largesse, else, the fundamental premises of society break down (as we've seen in our inner cities where welfare essentially funds free floating violence, drug abuse, the breakdown of the family, etc.)
But it is very clear that the pace of technological advancement poses problems like we've never seen -- this isn't "merely" an industrial revolution; as you indicated, it is a singularity or even multiple "singularities" taking place in different disciplines around the same time. |
