Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Over the last few weeks the latest humanoid robots out of Korea and Japan have been demoed, and they're getting more and more impressive in terms of fluidity of motion, natural intelligent behavior and problem solving, vision systems, and so on.

Now, even if you don't buy my “robot apocalypse” notion where humanity is literally destroyed and replaced by creations thousands of times more intelligent than us and unwilling to recognize our value (a la Skynet — I wish that was a Terminator link but it's not), the robot apocalypse will come.

It can not be stopped short of unimaginable levels of luddite terrorism.

By 2030, manufacturers are predicting that they will have enough robots with enough “skills” to be able to replace 50% of all jobs currently done by humans, with that number halving every few years. By 2050, virtually no job will be done by a human — after all, omnimobile robots are a snowballing scenario. Once they run the factories and the power production in some ways they could be said to be free. Even if the dates are wrong, the scenario is not.

The problem is, how do you transition from a capitalist system (which is what is producing these robots) to an egalitarian leisure society where everyone is happy and has what they want — you have to pass through an incredibly difficult period of escalating wealth disparity, and you have to assume that those “at the top” choose to allow those below them economically to rise up out of generosity. You also have to assume that splitting the assets of the earth equitably will be accepted by the “finders keepers” lot that currently enjoy those assets selfishly. Do you believe that Sheik Trump will give up his yacht so you and he can be equals? It's not as if there's enough ocean (or fuel) for billions of yachts.

Have you ever seen the rich so generous that they lower their own wealth? I've rarely seen a rich person or corporation give away money that didn't give them a tax break (thus in effect shifting the tax load to the poor, who can not do these tricks because they're not “financially big enough”). They give to take. So what do I believe will happen? Massive scale prostitution and a lot of soma. I believe it will be a long time before we can build a convincing simulacrum, so the only thing that the poor and middle classes will have of value to the ultrarich with armies of servant robots will be human flesh.

Don't worry, robot surgeons will give you a cosmetic overhaul so you can better service your rich master.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: there's a lot of honor in being a simple farmer.