All economies are exquisitely sensitive to our modern day existential threats. Witness the near total collapse of the world-wide financial systems with the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Corporatism and social democracies have no mechanism to address long range threats such as pandemics, global warming and/or automation and the loss of jobs, and autocratic governments haven’t the will.
At the root of the problem, money. Money became obsolete the moment it interfered with the advancement of human knowledge – space travel, scientific endeavor, moral enlightenment – we just haven’t figured that out yet. Money guarantees unequal distribution of wealth, deep poverty, unnecessary human suffering and human conflict. It is an exquisitely fragile system of resource distribution and our modern day global threats expose it’s inherent weaknesses. As the world continues to get smaller and more interconnected we have absolutely no choice but to move to a world without money. This is not a utopian fantasy, it is fact. Do it or we perish as a species, of this I have little doubt. But how?
Imagine a world where automation has expanded to include the harvesting of raw materials, processing them into refined materials, shaping, constructing and then distributing everything we need to live, and it is not hard to see how we evolve past money. Overseen by artificial intelligence (AI) that is dedicated to maintaining and improving such a system, aided by mobile repair and construction units, every material need would be provided for entirely by machines, for free.
Whether we realize it or not this is the logical progression of modern day industrial automation. Since automation promises price savings there is little doubt it will continue pretty much unchecked for the foreseeable future. But as it progresses more and jobs will be lost and money driven economies will eventually collapse. If no one is working, who is paying? It would be better to admit the inevitability of this and begin to plan for it aggressively, now. In fact we should embrace it and make complete automation a national goal much as we came together and did the impossible landing on the moon in less than a decade.
As we displace workers with machines, we must retrain them in some facet of the automation industry, while paying them their old wages. As the next wave of workers then lose their jobs to automation, do the same. In fact make complete automation within 20 years our focused national mission. Create a national automation administration - NAA - in order to bring resources and expertise together with the common mission of complete automation and freedom from material constraint for all mankind. Expedite automation in order to transition as painlessly as possible away from money to this more utopian life so as not to destroy societies so focused on money. At some point in this process much of the population will be employed in the automation industry at which point development continued but not brought on line until the system is completely ready to come online. Once completely in place - a literal throwing of the switch occurs - at which time - in one moment - money becomes obsolete, wages no longer needed, and mankind evolves.
Whether we realize it or not this is the logical progression of modern day industrial automation. Since automation promises price savings there is little doubt it will continue pretty much unchecked for the foreseeable future. But as it progresses more and jobs will be lost and money driven economies will eventually collapse. If no one is working, who is paying? It would be better to admit the inevitability of this and begin to plan for it aggressively, now. In fact we should embrace it and make complete automation a national goal much as we came together and did the impossible landing on the moon in less than a decade.
As we displace workers with machines, we must retrain them in some facet of the automation industry, while paying them their old wages. As the next wave of workers then lose their jobs to automation, do the same. In fact make complete automation within 20 years our focused national mission. Create a national automation administration - NAA - in order to bring resources and expertise together with the common mission of complete automation and freedom from material constraint for all mankind. Expedite automation in order to transition as painlessly as possible away from money to this more utopian life so as not to destroy societies so focused on money. At some point in this process much of the population will be employed in the automation industry at which point development continued but not brought on line until the system is completely ready to come online. Once completely in place - a literal throwing of the switch occurs - at which time - in one moment - money becomes obsolete, wages no longer needed, and mankind evolves.
Impossible? What will people do all day? Well, imagine a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in such a world. Self-isolate while goods and services continue without a hitch. Patients cared for in their homes with the latest in medical technology and resource instead of in highly resistant microbe factories that we call hospitals – cost no longer a factor. Imagine a world devoid of poverty, famine, starvation, and much of the reasons for human conflict. Imagine what the people of this future studying our times will say – 'they spent their entire lives going to a job they hated, so that they could eat? No job, no money, no eating? They focused their entire lives on materialism and killed each other by the millions over resources and riches. Absolute barbarism!'
As the world continues to get smaller and more interconnected, as automation progresses in our search for ever more wealth, we simply must move to a world without money. Either societies collapse and millions die or we evolve. This is not a utopian fantasy, it is fact. Do it or we perish.
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