The New Fire and its necessity in relation to jobs and security in a data driven, automated world.
Big data driven automation
The emerging synergies of big data analysis, artificial intelligence, knowledge systems, robotics and new forms of transportation will have a profound impact on society and the biosphere. There are naturally huge questions raised about job security at times of technological change, especially when that change moves faster than legislators, or society in general, can reasonably accommodate. The reason there is palpable fear on the part of many job holders, is that the cost, in aggregate, of the things they need and want; homes, food, education, health care, transportation, clothes and entertainment etc. do not seem to get cheaper in real terms as good employment opportunities evaporate.
The cameras they ship with now are decimating the still and video camera markets, but the computer in your pocket is now starting to destroy former knowledge based jobs...
The reason for this disconnect is that the cost of energy, both in real and in environmental terms, is getting relatively larger. Energy underpins the production and maintenance of everything, life is made better or worse through the abundance or not of affordable energy. This has been most obvious in third world countries like India, where over the last 10 years, despite a significant drop in the average price of oil, the price to the consumer has sky-rocketed, because the Indian government necessarily had to remove fuel subsidies that were crippling the countries finances. The resulting decrease in access to cheap energy, leads to the phenomenon of 'shrinkflation' where the size or quality of a product or service drops as the price remains the same or grows. People end up, for example, in smaller houses and find themselves eating food with inferior ingredients. Services get less pleasurable and health and education provision becomes less caring and personal, even though costs rise.
A minimum income?
The solution is not to give every human a minimum income, as this will just lead to inflation and devaluation of the local currency in all but the countries that hold reserve, or very strong currencies. A citizen will soon learn that their handout become less valuable quickly, this will encourage them to spend it, so increasing the velocity of money - however it does nothing to provide for the receivers future. The concept of providing everyone with money just because they are alive, would also further enslave and make dependent to the state, a huge underclass of people in society. Humans would become trapped in their country of birth, an affront to personal freedom.
There is one alternative though to providing local currency, that is to give every citizen a crypto currency, such as Bitcoin, that is to say, a currency that has a finite limited supply, independent of banks, and transferable across boarders. The act of a government paying a minimum income in this way would increase the value of every unit not spent and encourage receivers to save and build nest eggs for their future security. That is why this option will not be considered by those that like to control us.
Those in control of the financial system would not risk a bear market to please anyone
Providing a minimum income, in a fiat currency, is socialism for the banker cabal because they know they can harvest this 'government' issued cash into their coffers quickly. It will continue to inflate the assets that the rich already own and ensure they can be paid for by the majority rentier class, who will just exist. At least in the former eastern European blocks, under communist control, whilst you still just existed, you did get a guaranteed house, job and FREE ENERGY.
The solution is the New Fire
The New Fire (NF) is a technology that takes energy that is all around us, but normally inaccessible, and makes it available at any point in the universe. On the assumption that we, the compliant majority, do not permit the same actors to control access to this gift of nature, then, when the loop is closed, it will effectively make the cost of energy negligible. An accessible and widely available New Fire technology will mitigate the blow from the coming destruction in jobs and help to re-define what it is to be human. There is much more that a human can do, than merely work to live. There are many rewarding pursuits that can increase collective happiness and abundant, low cost energy will permit this.
The lack of need for oil,gas and nuclear etc. will reduce military misadventures and all the calls on the 'worker' to fund them. Happy people don't fight. Happy people enjoy sports, they improve their local environments and can volunteer in their community, celebrate culture and diversity. The opportunities for mind expanding travel and introspection will increase - enriching us intellectually and socially, fostering invention and creation in both science and art. The focus for economically rewarding advancements across all disciplines would become what can make people happy and fulfilled, rather than disillusioned and killed. We can look forward to better music, films, paintings, furniture and public art.
Not only will it change us, it will reduce our dependence on modifying and pillaging the natural world in order to satisfy our energy needs conventionally. Natural water courses can be returned to their former glory, free from the biological devastation and often times, the methane producing effects of damming. Mountains will not need to be removed to release coal deposits, and forests will not be decimated to provide firewood.
Land suitable for food crops need not be covered in carpets of solar panels or, indeed, the food converted into engine fuel. Furthermore, food production could be brought into the city, in vertical farms, where NF derived climatic control, will allow fresh food, originally from around the world, to be produced right where it needs to be consumed, without the need for eco-system destroying pesticides. We can look forward to enjoying a more natural world and better food.
When NF powered robots are constructing, or 3D printing homes, with NF produced raw materials, then the cost and associated carbon footprint of housing will plummet. Drone like transportation powered by the NF will remove the need for road building and bridge repairs, negating much government organised activity which should result in reduced taxation. Fresh water production and distribution, and grey water processing using NF energy will radically reduce shortage and improve the health of many. We can look forward to better homes, safer and faster journeys and better health overall.
but it can be a wonderful experience for the soul.
A day out with the family needs time, something modern humans can lack.
The service industry, already one of the biggest employers in developed economies, can focus on excellence. We can look forward to better hair, nails, sports and entertainment facility provision. We can have more time to build the relationships that bring us joy, family, friends and community.
To the stars
All of this activity will give humans the necessary tools and experience to use the NF to protect our precious Earth and set out on our next great adventure as a species, that of colonising the stars.
In a culture of wide-spread deployment of AI and robots, however, cryto-currency actually WON'T work any better than fiat to provide for everyone. The ultra-rich have ALREADY staked their claims in the crypto-currency world. Steemit's content-based economy isn't AT ALL proof against bots squeezing out human content generation, bots are designed in. If we work very, very hard, we might push collaborative economy a few years past the practical usefulness of current national economic models. I don't think we have much more than twenty years left.