FALC

Overall, I think that this article was interesting and brings up a point of view and a topic not really talked about. The main point of their argument is that Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC) is important and that it can possibly happen, one day. They say that FALC, will do most of the heavy and dirty work that humans used to do, while humans get to enjoy the benefits of its labor. The thing I want to ask, is this possible and is this already happening? In the article MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson says that the idea is certainly possible, while Aaron Bastani of Novara Media says that we’ve already reached this point in video and audio content with things like Wikipedia and Spotify to name a few. Throughout the article there are references made about the United Kingdom and how FALC can affect it. I think some Americans like myself would ask, how would FALC affect things here across the pond? We have to consider that there are some cultural differences between the US and the UK and notably there is also a big difference when it comes to population. This leads me to ask that since the UK has a lower population than the US and they think they’ll lose around 35% of jobs to automation, is that 35% the same here in America as well? I think that the 35% would be diluted to a smaller percentage here in America because of the greater population. When they talk about British Luxury Communism they mostly refer to works of literature and popular culture that deal with utopian societies with automation. One such example is the Novel, Looking Back and talking about the year 2000 and the “future” (the novel was written in the late 1800’s) and the utopian society it has become with technological advancements. Despite the fact that many representations of future societies are wrong and sometimes crazy, when we look at it, just like Aaron Bastani points out in the article that this is possible and we currently have gadgets that make our lives easier. Overall, I think the points that were brought were interesting and I do agree that we are somewhat heading towards automation, but I still think that this article needed to show how this would affect America, and how we can all share the luxury as well.