Smitty
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 22,561
Again, I'm not saying we are anywhere close to it.UBI would be the beginning of the end of capitalism and work incentives for everyone. It’s a worthless concept that is used by political hacks who want to perpetuate their careers and low ambition voters who keep them in office.
I'm just saying, imagine a scenario where nanobots can self-replicate by harvesting resources out of the ground, procuring their own energy (solar, or maybe fusion), can repair themselves when they break, and are programmed to farm food, build shelter, and create through automation all of the rest of humanity's basic needs. Why would I need to work, if there's an army of self-creating, self-maintaining, self-sustaining robots whose only function is to make me a house, feed me, and clean my house? I could sit on my ass all day long.
Now, you might ask, who pays for these robots? That's the thing. This type of automation is not only inevitable, but it will also eventually be so cheap as to be free.
"Work" will someday only be for the creative or for the technologically-advancing humans who want more than their basic needs met. For everyone else, there is literally a free ride for them. It doesn't even have to be from the government. Bill Gates could do this with his spare change. Free food and housing for everyone, all he needs is an initial investment of like, $2 billion dollars, to create the first self-replicating robots. He can do that in his will when he dies. Etc.
All this is hypothetical, obviously, but a scenario like this will eventually be reality.