Automation was never about safety in the first place.
Exactly. Humans are wasteful and expensive. One day, capitalists will realize if they don’t hire any humans, nobody but the capitalists will have money to buy anything.
Automation tech was also never about actually reducing humans either. Going all the way back to the broad loom, it always results in the same number of workers or greater - just that productivity (profits) increase and labour becomes de-skilled and more precarious.
Last time though there was a one generation gap before new jobs appeared and a bunch of people got to die of cholera in overcrowded conditions.
Iwnt that the whole idea?
The idea is that we automate everything and the more we do the more we pass that productivity/efficiency down to people via UBI/wellfare/less working hours and when we hit star trek levels people are free run in fields, paint or just goon all day if they want to.
But we’re doing the opposite, creating bullshit jobs to keep busy and pretend capitalism is working while starving and driving to extinction everyone who is not significantly wealthy while elite brag about driving innovation and the future of mankind.
I agree wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, we live in a world of wage slavery.
