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this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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Futurology
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The next class war is here. He who owns the robots (means of production) wins. Leasing out pizza robots. Ewww.
Or hear this out, maybe automation is how we make socialism viable. The masses don’t need to work, and those that are curious and creative can dedícate themselves to innovation, art and exploration. I know that sounds utopic so I will make the bet that in reality we will land somewhere in the middle, which is still an improvement from where we are now and from where we were 500 years ago.
Yes. In a world where resources and production are plentiful -- the hypothetical post-scarcity world -- then you could theoretically have this.
But the above article is about a business model that is as far from that future as possible. In fact, going in the opposite direction. It's a late stage capitalism business model and it is met with fanfare from the tech press somehow.
Make robots that produce a thing. Lease those robots to franchisees or whatever. Take a cut, and funnel money upwards while ceasing to innovate or produce anything, and defend the "tech" through litigation. Stock bubble, cash out. New owners enshittify by raising rates, decreasing quality, until product is no longer viable. Sue customers for breach of contract.
It's fucked. And it'll only get unfucked if legislation and enforcement of legislation is not wholly captured by the people doing the fucking.
You can not reach that post scarcity world without automation.
Human civilization is a process, a long term project. We cannot leapfrog stages. Ultimately suffocating or restricting technological advancement with the intention of preserving people’s jobs, while somewhat nobles, is a myopic approach to the issue. Don’t preserve any jobs, automate it all. Everything that can be automated should be automated. At some point redistribution of wealth won’t be a choice, it will be fundamentally necessary.