RE: Futurology - What will society look like in 2040?
Great post, but I disagree with something.
Why would we allow the means of production of necessary things to remain in private hands? That would be an incredible waste of potential. You assume that the economy should continue to exist, that money should continue to exist. Why?
Just imagine that humanity got together and built all the production facilities, for everything from food and water to electronics and clothes, that it needed in order to satisfy the needs of every human, not just every human who could afford to pay for it. No thought to cost. It's possible simply because we have the materials and know-how to get it done. We don't need to pay each other with made up currencies just to get stuff built, because we're one human family.
Automation should free us, not impoverish us.
@proditor thank you for reading my post, being the first to comment and upvote first off, That means alot to me!
To answer your question which is great, I want to remind you of something I said, "I believe we will see a clash between the decentralized economy with the centralized economy."
I think that as long as Capitalism, Big Business and Government exist we will have some sort of centralization of money and power which will cause income and power inequality. Now what you are suggesting is great and utopian, however it might also be borderline Karl Marx socialism. Now while I think that what you are suggesting is possible and I hope it happens, realistically, I don't see that happening by 2040. I see it's conceivable that it could happen towards the end of the century or at the start of the 22nd century. By 2040, I do believe, we will see disruptions to the traditional economy we have today and we will see decentralized models clash with preexisting centralized ones.
So, I do see exuberantly wealthy elite forming and clinging on to their power and wealth. I also see a shift where they will be taxed in the form of a UBI for ppl. I also think that ppl will start finding other means of making income through the blockchain/cryptocurrencies and decentralized economies that exist by then. I believe ppl who invest in disruptive technologies (ie. Blockchain, Crypto, Security Tokens, Biotech, AI, Fintech, IOT, Robotics) or who own stakes in them little or small will do fine. The rest will have UBI. And I really do think the income inequality gap will widen. I think the transition period to the singularity and shortly thereafter will not be smooth by any means. And I see it all as a transition happening between changing philosophical, political and economic ideas of how society will run. I do think money will still be the bedrock for how humans survive and purchase things whether it be a national cryptocurrency or decentralized cryptocurrencies. I also think the stock market will exist. So I see both the stock market and the crypto markets growing & competing during this period by 2040. What you are suggesting may come true by 2100, but I think by 2040 (22 yrs from now) we will not have advanced that much as a populace and will be making painful transitions to a hopefully better world post-singularity.