PALO ALTO, CA - With Silicon Valley boasting that artificial intelligence could replace millions of jobs around the world, currently laid-off workers have reported having more free time to form angry mobs dedicated to storming and torching the homes of the tech billionaires responsible.
Eventually they won’t even need them. Your smart fridge reported you discussing seditious conspiracy and your smart washer has noted you own a black hoodie, aka terrorist attire. Your smart vehicle has been remotely disabled, and an Amazon delivery drone has been rerouted to terminate you after its final delivery. Don’t bother trying to turn off the tracking device in your pocket, it still pings even when powered down and between Ring and Flock we can see you at all times anyway.
There still need to be people to go in and arrest them, and meat is cheaper than motors and hydraulics using resources that would otherwise remain unexploited.
Police can rid themselves of the loathsome term “peace officer” and revert to their preferred name, “slave catcher”. The violent beatings of minorities and dissidents will continue because anonymously exploding them by remote isn’t as rewarding to the ruling class as watching them suffer.
They aren’t peace officers, they are police officers. That means no peace outside of the exclusion zones( read: Rich enclaves)
“To serve and protect… ourselves and our masters from being held accountable by the the masses.”
All of that requires you have money. Which you don’t have anymore, because you don’t have a job that pays you. Unless the system changes radically, at some point enough people can’t even buy food and have only time in their hands. So what are they going to do?
I get the impression we’re in the final stages of “money” as we’ve known it and heading to some sort of digital feudalism where most people don’t own much of anything and rent, lease, or pay a subscription to access everything else. You don’t need to buy a smart fridge that analyzes your behavior because it was supplied by your landlord. Can’t tamper with it, can’t replace it, and older models are no longer supported. Can’t repair the 40yo car you own because it’s no longer considered “safe”, plus they quit making replacement parts so you have to get a new one. I would not at all be surprised to watch them shift to an all digital money market where your rent, bills, and subscriptions are withheld and distributed as a convenience and when you go shopping the retailer adjusts the price based on your ability and willingness to pay more. You might make 10% more than your coworker but WalMart knows that and gouges you for every last cent of discretionary income they can pull. Can’t shop anywhere else, it’s all the same because the same people own everything. Jobs will exist, the illusion of “work hard/climb the ladder” will be abandoned and the tasks it’s cheaper/more efficient to use human labor in will be your career options. If you cannot find a mate one will be assigned to you and the expenses of your children (obligated to provide) will be deducted from your wages, after taxes of course.
Dystopian and dark, probably a bit of a stretch, but I do think there’s an effort to make private property and capitalism as we’ve known it a thing of the past. Not in a socialist, collectivist way, but to get to some perpetual indentured servitude.
What to do about it? Sink the ship. Yeah, we’re on it; so are they. Some of us won’t survive, there’s no guarantee we’ll win, but we’re constantly patching up a 250yo vessel that has some parts worth saving but is mostly rotten. We sleep in the bilge while they enjoy the cabin. Scuttle it and start again. I get why people still aren’t ready to do that, but I guess we’ll see what they think of our prospects when elections start getting cancelled, suppressed, or ignored.