06-28-2011, 08:21 PM
Hi,
If not enough people can afford the products, then less products will be made. The cost of making fewer products will increase the cost of the products (the opposite of economy of scale), leaving yet fewer people able to afford the products. That spirals down into stasis.
How will the vast majority of people, incapable of getting the top end jobs because of their mental limitations and not lucky enough to get a bottom end job, get any income to buy any products at all?
Not quite. There is still the question of raw materials. I once told a friend I was going to build a telescope from scratch. He smiled and pointed out it would take a while. A few billion years after the big bang I would have to cause before enough stars had gone supernova to give me workable amounts of silicon, oxygen, iron, copper, etc. for my truly raw materials.
No one, except present CEOs and members of the board, will notice any difference.
--Pete
(06-28-2011, 07:56 PM)Jester Wrote: The incredibly large product of a fully automated, impossibly advanced economy will simply drive prices down to the level of affordability... or, if the goods are not affordable by any consumers, they will not be produced in the first place.
If not enough people can afford the products, then less products will be made. The cost of making fewer products will increase the cost of the products (the opposite of economy of scale), leaving yet fewer people able to afford the products. That spirals down into stasis.
How will the vast majority of people, incapable of getting the top end jobs because of their mental limitations and not lucky enough to get a bottom end job, get any income to buy any products at all?
(06-28-2011, 07:56 PM)Jester Wrote: It might matter how expensive the robots are to make - if self-replication becomes widespread, or simply very cheap assembly and boilerplate AI, then these phenomenal powers might be available to almost everyone, making labour pointless, and everyone a capitalist.
Not quite. There is still the question of raw materials. I once told a friend I was going to build a telescope from scratch. He smiled and pointed out it would take a while. A few billion years after the big bang I would have to cause before enough stars had gone supernova to give me workable amounts of silicon, oxygen, iron, copper, etc. for my truly raw materials.
(06-28-2011, 07:56 PM)Jester Wrote: The real question is, what happens when the robots become owners?
No one, except present CEOs and members of the board, will notice any difference.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?