Music Banter - View Single Post - Socialism
Thread: Socialism
View Single Post
Old 02-18-2015, 06:57 PM   #61 (permalink)
John Wilkes Booth
Account Disabled
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 2,235
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by EPOCH6 View Post
Absolutely.

But of course it's rampant capitalism that will get us to the point where that becomes an option. It's rampant capitalism that produces the Googles, SpaceXs, Boston Dynamics', and Microsofts that invent the technologies capable of automating large and complex functions of social systems. The interesting thing about the future possibility of primarily automated social systems is that it very well could be inevitable, we may subconsciously push ourselves into that world. Inventors more often than not have no idea that their invention will have the impact that it does. Arthur Scherbius, the inventor of the Enigma Machine, a communications security device, had no idea he was initiating the evolution of personal computers, he was just earning a paycheck and trying to help his country. Robert H. Goddard didn't know he was ushering in the birth of the Space Age when he invented early liquid-fueled rockets.

Once these devices are invented and become public their evolution is no longer controlled by purpose or intent. You end up with a hive of engineers, technicians, and developers simultaneously swarming the device, modifying it this way and that way, and its future impact becomes entirely unpredictable, the competitive tech industry subconsciously pushes it forward to serve a much larger purpose. And seeing as the vague primary goal of all technological evolution is to automate and simplify processes that were previously done manually, all technology inevitably pushes us further towards automated society.

Capitalism will force itself into obsolescence.
i see it more as capitalism is one way to create an incentive for technological progress. it's certainly not the only way. and i tend to think it's more effective as a way to make that technology ubiquitous than it is at actually funding the (often not immediately profitable) frontier research that is necessary to make serious technological advances.

e.g. the first computer was built out of a need to slaughter nazis, not based on consumer demand. the archetype for the internet was a military project. the first attempts towards space travel and all of the technological progress that this has inadvertently seeded were mainly fueled by the cold war. etc.
John Wilkes Booth is offline   Reply With Quote