[Hae-Joo] The Dialectics of the Future : The New World Order [Part 3 : The Robotics Age, Universal Basic Income, Technocracy, and Global Scientific Dictatorship]
The Dialectic of the Future
Welcome to the dawn of the "Global Scientific Dictatorship" (if you are a servant),
or the "Technocratic Corporate Meritocracy" (if you are a master).
Main Concepts:
- The Robotics Age
- Universal Basic Income : Welfare World (The Global Dole)
- Technocracy & AI
- Scientific Dictatorship
The Robotics Age
First, I just want to extend a huge thank you to the @tribesteemup family, and in particular @kennyskitchen for his really kind words that touched my soul in a profound way. Thank you for the support and the opportunity to be a part of such a great initiative here... Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your efforts and vision, and striving to make it possible for all of us to share in this vision and collectively manifest our awakening, emancipation, and transformation... Thank you for your divinely inspired endeavor...
Whether it be Hollywood blockbuster movies, or videos of the latest robotic developments surfacing on YouTube, or even the odd mainstream news anchor joking about "how robots could take your job soon", it would seem apparent to me that the pace that mechanical engineering has been progressing recently has lead to improvement and innovation in leaps and bounds, and society has been putting-out quite a bit of predictive conditioning regarding the rapid developments in the field of robotics. And I believe that's because where robots seemed to be confined to the world of factory line and warehouse management, they've increasingly ventured out of their natural habitat into an increasingly diverse range of environments.
Robots can now be seen in hospitals, and senior-residences (old folks homes), taking care of everything from laundry, to food and medication distribution, to sanitation and other janitorial tasks. And aside from frying up some eggs and bacon in the kitchen, and preparing cappuccinos for the hipsters, they're increasingly taking humanoid form to perform their complex tasks.
Now I can't say for sure, but the movie iRobot, which had a fictional Google producing humanoid robots for keeping in the home, that did everything from cook food, to do the dishes to vacuum and dust, to wash the sheets and make the bed, to run home and get your asthma medication you forgot so that you don't need to... (I'd be sending mine to run home and get my phone charger, lol.)
This movie had a world completely transformed by robots by 2030; which I personally find to be quite a reasonable timeframe given the pace of these developments.
And by completely transformed, I mean like hundreds of millions of robots, doing at least 30% of all the retail/service/jobs found in the world's big cities. I'm talking about robocops, robonurses, roboconstruction-builders, roboambulance-drivers, robosales-clerks, robo-barristas, robobank-tellers... Oh, and how could I forget, robo-prostitutes and robo-"partners" (sex-slaves!) Okay, you get the picture. A roboworld.
Though I believe this does at some point in time lead to an incredible amount of anxiety, turmoil and dissidence, with some riots and vandalism against robots, and stuff like that. But seriously, once Joe Regular realizes that robots "Ar takehn muh johbs" and some shotgun shells have been used to blow some $10,000 robots computer-heads off, and people have started going to jail and poverty, inequality and crime are going through the roof.
Welfare World : Universal Basic Income and the Global Dole
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is being pilot tested around the world. From Silicon Valley where techno-liberals are advocating for its adoption by society, to Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, and now Canada. Interestingly enough, the idea is often advocated for by conservative, right-wing proponents who claim that instead of a highly-complex welfare system, which would include everything from social security, government-housing, the dole / welfare payments, food-stamps, and all other forms of social programs that have ever been implemented by so-called progressive regimes since the 20th century, the whole system could be easily simplified: a guaranteed basic and equal income for all citizens, paid for by taxes generated by the State.
It has been argued that if such a guaranteed basic income that could put everybody right around the current poverty line in Western countries were to be introduced in society, there would not only be a reduction in crime, poverty, and other social ills, but this would also be a huge boom to businesses and solve many of the problems of over-production and falling demand.
Indeed, as per Marx's critique, the problem of over-production (precipitated by an environment of bottomlineism and wage-stagnation) was always predicted to cause the capitalist world to implode under its own weight. What has been remarkable, and what even Communist ideologues like Slavoj Zizek have expressed is the fact that capitalism creates such good incentives to innovate (the million, or even billion dollar idea) that even when it seems to have dug itself into a ditch and found its back against the wall and been trapped into a corner, it somehow manages to reinvent itself and escape its untimely death.
Someone with the wherewithal, the brains, the charisma to introduce a concept that solves big problems will always be adequately incentivized to enact these potentially utiliterian ideas.
I would argue however, that every time capitalism has reinvented itself and its mode of operation, it seems to be inching ever closer to communism, though what that means and why that is is an entirely different conversation to be had. (I would argue that the elite capitalists and the elite communists have in reality always been two sides of the dialectic pushing for the radical transformation of society... They've always seemed to be working hand in hand...)
In the 1930s, when faced with overproduction and low demand, there was a "New Deal" and Keynesian economics was introduced to "close the gap". They thought that by getting the government to interfere with markets they could artificially stimulate demand for the capitalist's products.
In the 1970s, when faced with the problem of overproduction and low demand, another "Ah-ha!" eureka moment occurred. Again, as during the 1930s, everybody was broke, and there was overproduction and low demand. So what happened? They gave the post-war generation access to credit like never before. House loans, car loans, credit cards... Even young people were now borrowing money they didn't have just to receive an education and enter the workforce.
And so, as it always does, the capitalist world momentarily solved its internal crisis, its problem of low-demand and overproduction.
Then the 2008 financial crisis hit. The world's debt could no longer be funded.
Was the debt wiped? Did we reset the board? Did we discuss the possibility of changing the system?
- "Austerity measures" were introduced.
- Bank bail-ins and bail-outs were introduced.
- Quantitative easing was introduced.
- Stock-buy-backs.
- Mergers & Acquisitions.
- Intellectual property vultures.
- The Tech-Companies' "Smart Age"
- And the associated "Gig Economy".
By this point, it should be fairly obvious to everybody that the next crisis is going to be so catastrophic that it will require extreme changes to the current system to quell all the instability. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I'd just like to preface that I'm really not a Marxist at heart, at all. Nor am I capitalist at heart. And I don't believe a Communist world would leave many feeling content, satisfied, or fulfilled. But really, what system in "history" has? I think that yearning for something purer, more etheric and spiritual is ultimately what the quest of man has been all about. And I understand why taking care of our material needs is such a problem for us, and why we are always striving to simplify these kinds of tasks. My hope is that it could be done the right way, spiritually, ethically, morally... Whatever role robotics and artificial intelligence end up playing in society, I would hope that it leads to a reduction in suffering, and not an increase.
Technocracy and AI
Like many ideas that have been floated around during the modern era, technocracy has a pretty decent appeal. Claiming that society would be less corrupt, more efficient, and more egalitarian if the control, direction, and administration of society were in the hands of engineers, architects, theoretical scientists, and the like...
The idea is that complex organization could be better performed by intelligent systems created by specialists, than it could be by corruptible, fallible politicians. Human error could be reduced to a significant degree, hopefully leading to let misguided judgment, and problems linked to "human nature".
Technocracy didn't really gain much traction when the idea was first floated around, because technology was not sufficiently advanced to be able to perform tasks with the same level of intelligence as human decision-making could produce.
But in the age of artificial intelligence, the opportunity to reconsider that premises' validity has presented itself.
Maybe computers could actually make better, faster, cheaper and safer decisions than politicians and elected or unelected leaders.
The obvious question, then, is who would the engineers and architects of a technocratic system be? Who would be the philosophers and thinkers programming the machine that would then manage society? And in this day and age, the obvious candidates should be no surprise to anyone: Big-Tech Silicon Valley would do it.
Because these companies don't exactly have the best track-record when it comes to making ethical decisions that take into account not only the common good, the public interest, and the general will of the people...
These guys have a record of doing whatever they can, whatever they could, and whatever they will, to increase their power at any and all cost. These companies have all, at times, exemplified characteristic traits of psychopathy, in one form or another. Were these guys to be left completely unchecked (and often they are), they would violate every basic human right that we have ever come accustomed to expect, demand, or desire.
There are no philosopher kings amid these tech-giants. There are no enlightened principles guiding their motivations, actions, intents, objectives, or means of fulfilling and reaching them. Their principles are dictated by one primordial force: Progress
But progression towards what? Progression towards their complete and total domination of every facet of every last human being's life. They want our time, they want our attention, they want our consent, our admiration, our desire, our gratitude... What they want is our subservience.
Scientific Dictatorship
The would-be rulers, aptly rebranded as technocrats in our era... the ones who have emerged to push our globalizing world deeper into the information and robotic revolutions... They've always been around, in some form or another. What we are seeing is a cross-generational transfer of power. This can be observed from the list of attendees at Bilderberg among other ways of looking at it. The old King is abdicating in favor of the realm's favorite Prince.
Increasingly we've seen a population of younger people, techno-savvy individuals who've accumulated huge concentrations of power in a very short time... They now wield and control our information technology systems. Now they are attendance at Bilderberg and other globalist organizations, to learn more about the history, opportunities and challenges of global governance. The old guard of international financiers, investors and businessmen are reaching old age. And all the billions of dollars in the world could not even save the lives of the great capitalists, such as we have seen with the passing of the late David Rockefeller at 101 years of age. The old oligarchs realize that this new generation has the means to usher in with great expediency everything they've worked for during their entire lives...
So as the passage of time continues, the new generations of masters are being groomed to ascend to the throne of the world. The age of the Buffet and Soros billionaire investors is coming to an end, and everybody in power is okay with this.
To them, capitalism did well, better than anybody had hoped, and it has paved the way for the future of mankind. It's best ideas will be enshrined as the untouchable philosophical doctrines of the next millennia.
The Consumer will ascend to the Pantheon of Man's Historic reach for the stars. The right to consume everything under the stars will become his birthright... The inalienable right to satisfy the hungers of the flesh, at a moment's notice... That is, of course, if you're worthy to be a part of the human family in this next golden age..
The "Science" of Global Dictatorship
Eugenics
As a result of capitalism's success in alleviating the materials wants and needs of Man, the human population has exploded. In the aftermath of our "Awakening", we have created hordes of "useless eaters".
Were we to try and integrate this great many people into a lifestyle befitting the gods, their fractured psyches and lower nature would cause them to destroy everything that has been built. They are not like "Us", the Immaculate Ones. The genetically-engineered ones, the Designer Babies.
They are a vestige, a remnant, of a humanity long-past its prime. An overdue species, that has become a burden, a barrier, to the next step in human evolution.
Their populations must be culled. Tight-control of the human genome and gene pool must be exercised. Just as artificial selection molded Men out of Monkeys, it is now up to us, the Immaculate gods on Earth, to breed them out by only selecting the finest genes for reproduction.
Those born with low-IQs, genetic diseases, malformations and physical imperfections... If they cannot be re-engineered, they must go, by hook or by crook.
Welcome to the era of the Global Scientific Dictatorship...
Welcome to the age of...
Transhumanism
Very interesting! I quite enjoyed (and agree with) most of your post.
I think the only place we differ is that I have a different definition of capitalism which is letting the free market decide. In other words, let people spend their money how they want without government interference. The problem we are having today is not capitalism in my view, it is neo-fascism. The governments and corporations working together to give themselves more power. This is the opposite of a free market. So with that being said, I don't really agree with your line "I contend this is definitely a capitalist solution to a capitalist problem" because if the government is doing it, it is not capitalist. A capitalist solution would be something that people do of their own free will. A charity for example, or something like grantcoin. (Eos seems to be working on some sort of UBI as well). I'm not going to pretend that I know what the best solution is, I'm simply pointing out that true capitalism lets the market decide. This unleashes everyone's creativity. Honestly the most efficient solution in my mind is where everyone just helps everyone else without worrying about money but I don't think the human race can handle that at this point. (Similar to communism but without any coercion of force of the government) Just my two cents.
Anyway, great post! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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