Comments | synthpopbop: here's the new plan

synthpopbop

here's the new plan

Apr 25, 2006 19:09

My roommate and I discussed this over lunch today. The solution to all our problems: heavy investment in autonomous robot research (not AI) and renewable energy sources (fusion approacheth). We could build enough robots to do all the labor necessary to produce enough food, clothing, and shelter for all people on the planet. This goal seems ( Read more... )

Comments 10

talesinsdaughtr April 26 2006, 03:32:20 UTC

It makes me wonder about machine glitches in the robots. Computers made life remarkably easier in myraid ways, but they also create their own sets of problems.
And couldn't there potentially be conflict over control of food/shelter/clothing producing robots? Or the means/technology to build them. Say one govmnt. got this technology first (current administration comes to mind) and then refused to share it world wide?

synthpopbop April 26 2006, 13:53:03 UTC

there will be maintenance robots to fix broken robots (and people to fix maintenance robots). there could be conflict over control, but not if it's done right - the idea is to free us from the need to control because everyone is provided for. why subjugate others if you stand nothing to gain from it? you already have everything!

cupcakefairy April 26 2006, 03:47:04 UTC

and what about overpopulation? wouldn't that make the world look like a fuzzy ball of people sitting on each others heads or like people would live in boat housing in the oceans

cupcakefairy April 26 2006, 03:47:20 UTC

good idea though snarlo

synthpopbop April 26 2006, 13:51:15 UTC

we'll get off the planet really quick if we're free from material needs!

Smock anonymous April 28 2006, 07:29:21 UTC

A human emancipation from strife will not have anything to do with the production of food, clothing and shelter. There are already many, many individuals who possess an abundance of these things and yet they still bring about conflict. A liberation of need will never be solved by inventing more and more complex ways of manipulating the external (eg 'robots'). We've been doing that shit for a long ass time, and there is no limit to how sophisticated humans can become in this regard. In essence, we are already "liberated from need". In essence, reality has no inherent negativity, has nothing to do with conflict or strife. The sole factor involved are our minds, our perceptions of reality and life. Come to understand your own mind, it's innate connection to every event and relationship you experience, and your ability to revise that connection - and we will never need robots, economic incentives or government policy ( ... )

Re: Smock synthpopbop April 28 2006, 16:52:16 UTC

It's easy to say we're liberated from need when we live in the United States, it's another thing to say so when we live in a country where countless people are starving and dying of AIDS. We need to bring everyone to the same level of comfort that most Americans and Europeans (and others) enjoy.

Re: Smock anonymous April 29 2006, 19:20:52 UTC

A "liberation from need" has nothing to do with where you live or the levels of comfort a country enjoys. Whether in the poorest of nations, within the most wretched wartime conditions, or under the most oppressive government in existence, there are those who thrive. Why is that? Is it because of luck, fortune or randomness? A liberation from need is a state of being emanating from the individual. It is never dependent or determined by the external conditions or circumstances one is within. If in an instant we could transform the conditions of the people you spoke of to a level of comfort comparable to what is possessed by most Americans, then the inner values, the self-images, the beliefs of each individual that supported and contributed to their miserable experience would manifest themselves in other detrimental ways. That isn't meant as an insult, but an attempt to illustrate the true roots of any person's experience. The quality of your life is a direct translation of what you hold in your mind - your self-image, hopes, fears, ( ... )

Re: Smock synthpopbop April 29 2006, 20:33:02 UTC

It seems like you're completely ignoring the concept of power. Material concerns exist, as long as they are able to affect our physical bodies and thus our minds. There is a difference between dying of cancer at age 70 and dying of AIDS at age 35. Tough luck isn't good enough, and neither is "be happy with what you have", when there are individuals that possess (and don't need) the billions to clothe and feed and properly care for those who are made vulnerable to early deaths because of the circumstances into which they are born. I'm not talking about a deterministic world, or calling for an entirely philanthropic developed world. I'm just saying that power dynamics are real, that past centuries of subjugation have real-world, extremely undesirable effects on people. I'm not calling for the liberation of the human spirit from evil, or of the mind from doubt, only the liberation of the human body from unnecessary physical harm. To free people from physical need is to enable them to explore the needs and abilities of the mind. ( ... )

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