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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





What is REALLY SCARY is that we could see a Post-Scarcity Society develop, yet the gains made would only be seen for a few.

In other words, the "Post-Scarcity" would only apply to those who held the Capital in a Society.

The recent movie on Netflix (or is it Amazon Prime???), Advantageous shows how such a society could exist. There are no shortages of material goods in that world, yet people still wind up going without, because the ultra-wealthy did not wish to give up their advantages, and distinctions between themselves and the "Masses."

So, because DNA reading has become so simple (and this will likely happen in the mid-20s to early-30s - DNA being capable of being read in a few seconds), it allows those in control the perfect control to access technology.

Unless your DNA has been approved for access to an "App" or to a technology, you simply do not get access.

And, all work has essentially evaporated, save for a select few who are competing even more fiercely for the few remaining jobs.

What is called Technological Unemployment is a VERY REAL concern. And economists and politicians (mostly in Europe and Asia) are taking it very seriously (but are still trapped in the Capitalist mentality in terms of thinking of Guaranteed Basic Incomes as a fix for the problem). While the Basic Income is likely to be an intermediate necessary step, it is a horrific fix, which traps people into a life which, while very comfortable, has no opportunities for advancement or acquiring real Capital (as seen in Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire).

And, like some in this thread who dismiss as "Science Fiction" the very real advances being made in AI, much of the global population has absolutely no means of even contemplating these realities. It is simply so alien that no basis for comparison exists for many, and thus we get a form of denial where people reject reality due to being unable to contemplate how horrific it really could be.

This might just come down to a situation like Cyril Kornbluth's The Marching Morons (Lampooned by the creators of Southpark, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in their movie Idiocracy), where we simply have to abandon portions of the Globe to people who lack the ability to think in terms other than a primitive, mid-20th century world while those who can think in terms of integration with advanced cybernetic technologies manage the world from another portion of the Globe, cut off from the rest of the population.

Which would be the same as seeing the Ultra-Wealthy control things. It would just be an expansion of the ranks of those wealthy enough to control the technologies.

MB
   
 
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