Sensibilium Blog

I want to approach a philosophical and scientific question, that should interest us all, which starts from the base question of Why are we here? and concludes with Where are we headed?

As most of us are aware, we live in a weird place indeed. We're stuck to a tiny ball of planetary material, spinning around a huge (miniscule compared to some) nuclear fusion reactor at truly terrifying speeds, there is a vacuum of space which reaches out further than anyone can imagine, with lumps of rock and gas and all sorts else, and here we are. But why? Yeah I wish I knew as well, bummer isn't it?

But let's move on from the philosophical questions, they can be quite a sticky area for some and I don't want to get into all that stuff. There are plenty of crazy a/theists on youtube you can look at if you like. If you want links, don't ask.

So where are we headed? Again, I don't really know, this area would involve deep study of civilisation, education, the scientific method, and many other historical events. So what is all this civilisation stuff for? At first it was about power and control, I'm sure we can all agree. The concepts of freedom and democracy, with equality, peace, freedom of movement, thought, speech seem to be pointing in one direction, which is a fair and balanced life for everyone in the world with equal access to resources. This can never happen under a Capitalist system as far as I can see.

What happens when robots are so sophisticated and cheap to manufacture that they replace every job any human does at the moment? Mass unemployment. We couldn't possibly continue with the current system. Which means one of two things, you get extremely paranoid about losing power and do everything in your power to, at first, ban them from use in certain positions, etc. in order to protect the jobs of the humans at the cost of the humans who buy the stuff, thru to destroying all robots. To perpetuate the madness. Or, you could accept the general principle that this will be a good thing for the world, and there is a pretty much endless supply of resources to build stuff out in our local galaxy.

Let's fix things one at a time, eh? Firstly everyone needs food, electricity, clean water, access to healthcare, internet access, and other bit and bobs. Which reminds me, Mandelson is awful, I mean truly awful. He's such a meany. Well, you know what, Mandy? The Internets are bigger than you and your little nuclear-armed government (I like you really I do). You are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think you can save your precious (my precious) lobbyists. You are the darkness that manifests itself in this world. I correct myself, you are one of many. For the darkness has great strength, but the Internetz was built by your friends in the US Military, built to withstand nuclear armageddon. You may drop your bombs, and kill us all, but the Pirate Bay would be up and running again in around 3 hours.

So as far as I'm concerned a future where we no longer have to work to survive, and everything is catered to by robots, is not such an idealistic dream, it just might be quite a serious battle getting there. Watch out for the Luddites, they will try to smash your machine. Stand strong Internets, stand strong.