After reading the article Fully Automated Luxury Communism,
it is clearly apparent that a major controversial topic is covered. The
controversy covered is: Should society shift the way it has functioned for so
long, mainly human beings performing jobs, to all robots and machines taking
over our jobs instead? The absolute first thought that popped into my brain
after reading, was the animated Disney movie WALL-E. In case you have not seen
this movie, basically machines and robots take over the whole entire world.
Humans no longer have to lift a single finger for anything. Humans sit in a
motorized chair and don’t even walk anymore! Needless to say the humans in this
movie are jumbo big cause they don’t have to walk or exercise. How unhealthy is
that! On the one hand, I agree with the (FALC). It would be pretty cool to eliminate
people having to do any manual labor at their jobs, thus creating a more
utopian society. But on the other hand, I still insist that if people no longer
have jobs because robots have taken over, how on earth will they make an income
to support themselves or their family? No job means there is no income. I can only imagine that this would
create an increase in the unemployment rate and poverty rate. It is obvious
that machines are already making a mark on society. As mentioned in the
article, there are self-checkouts at stores, meaning no longer a need for cashiers;
there are also machines that are making products instead of physical people needing
to, like in the old days. Nevertheless, both followers and critics of Fully
Automated Luxury Communism will probably suggest otherwise and argue that there
will still be plenty of jobs, so there is no need to worry. Some followers of
(FALC) might claim that robots and machines are not taking over our society, of
course as time goes on, technology advances so there is no doubt we have robots
and machines assisting. All I can think about still is the movie Wall-E. If our
world turned out to be anything like how it is in that movie, so help me and everybody
else. I am pretty sure humans would become extinct, as wild as that sounds.
This article has definitely got me a little nervous for the future. Fully
automated luxury communism needs to be put to a stop, for the sake of our human
race!
After reading the article Fully Automated Luxury Communism and My peers blog I have to disagree at first. The blog claims that America would become obese and that income would become an issue, but if robots do all the work why would things cost money in the first place? There would be no workers to pay and if supplies are given by the government In order to support this new utopian society then virtually there would not be any cost. Now I know this idea or movement is way to off into the future to believe in yet, but you cannot completely scrap the idea because it frightens you. Many people afraid of change would argue that this Gilded luxury would be a bust as many would have to first suffer in order to achieve the perfect amount for this society. But what if technology could lead to ways to synthesize food, or utilize solar power for gas, or a system to cleanse ocean water into drinkable water, If all of this could happen then we as a society shouldn’t have anything to fear. The author of FALC brings up a good point how cell phones and many innovations we cannot go a day without started of too as outlandish ideas. We as humans can only discover new futures for ourselves if we attempt. I believe, as most Americans do, robots taking jobs would be detrimental to society. However if I was wrong like so many others then this could be the beginning of something new, first self driving cars and before you know it the actual colonization of other planets.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article Fully Automated Luxury Communism, I have to disagree with your argument. One of the biggest concerns that you mention in your argument is that people would most be able to buy anything because of the fact that they wouldn’t have jobs where they receive monetary compensation for their services. However, in a fully automated society, this would not be a problem at all, because the full automation of all services and sectors would result in products practically being free due to there being no manual labor involved. While transitioning to a fully automated society might cause some problems in the short-term future, those problems could be addressed in a variety of ways until they are no longer problems at all. You also argue that people could possibly grow unhealthy due to not having to work for money. However, with machines giving people all the time in the world to do what they want, I don’t believe that most people would just sit around doing nothing for the rest of their lives. In fact, people would have the means to achieve every dream they ever had, even if those dreams are currently out of their reach for economic reasons. The article also makes the point that people could still interact with the way society worked in a decentralized manner, using Wikipedia as an example of people doing that today. While you argue that a fully automated society would be very harmful and must be stopped to save humanity, I believe that a fully automated society is one of the best things that could ever happen to humanity, and should be embraced as it becomes more and more of a reality.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article and your blog, I would have to disagree with your belief that once the FALC is in full swing, the world as a whole will end up like the people in WALL-e. If jobs are given to robots, these people might find new jobs that are dreams of theirs or jobs that could be produced due to the new machinery. Also, this gives people a sense of freedom. Stuck in the same dead end job could be tiring and with automated labor, their work load is significantly decreased if not eliminated. This allows people to see their families more and do things they wished they could do whenever they spent 10+ hours working at the factories. I believe people would be more active as they had more free time. Yes there would be people who would be couch potatoes, but the active people would outweigh the lazy.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article Fully Automated Luxury Communism and your blog, I would have to disagree with your argument. In a fully automated society positive things could occur. For example, things would be done much quicker and more efficiently just because that is what technology does for the human race. People always complain about bad service, or things being poorly done and honestly that is because the human race is imperfect in itself. Robots are programmed and made to be perfect so mistakes when completing tasks would be fairly minimal. This would probably bring more happiness to people because things are being done to their expectations. Also, if robots were to take over the easy basic jobs that humans are being forced to do now, maybe these people would finally be able to find the jobs of their dreams. Most people would make the argument that humans would sit around and do nothing all day because who would not love that? Although I do somewhat agree that it is a possibility but I also believe that they would not just sit around and that they would go out and be adventurous in their own lives to better themselves and their families. Therefore, they would finally get to go out and do what they love because these basic jobs are being done by robots. This would bring a lot of happiness to a lot of the poorer people around the world and then maybe poverty levels would decrease in this occasion.
ReplyDeleteIn the article "fully automated luxury communism" by Brian Merchant, he talks about our society today and the future for our society and how technology will effect it. The author brings in statics about machines and factory's and how they have taken thousands and thousands of jobs. He states that it will even get worse as time goes by and more robots/machines are created. People who disagree with me will say that society should discontinue machines and stop using robots and factories however it's a fact that through out the centuries mankind always advances technology and they will continue to do the same. Creating more machines won't exactly erase all jobs , we can make jobs around the machines because there are jobs that machines just can't simply do.
ReplyDeleteThrough out the article Merchant talks about different cultures technological advances such as ours and the British. He states that this is just the beginning and it will not stop it will continues wether we like it or not.
After reading this I personally felt like he was 100% right!! Just look how far human kind has come?? There wasn't always lights and electricity, we created that. Our ideas will continue to advance and bloom as time goes on. Eventually everything will be so high tech it will be hard to remember a time where there wasn't tv or smart phones. I personally think that it's a great thing, we were given these amazing minds and thoughts for no reason !
Based off the article fully automated luxury communism by brian merchant, I can see both sides of his argument. That with all the technology in the world should humans just go ahead and switch over technology throughout the world or just stick with what we have. I could see why some people would think that switching over to a world full of technology would be helpful. Who wouldn't want technology to do all the work for them, without them even thinking about lifting a finger. That's an ideal way of living. However without humans even lifting a finger people start to become real lazy. America has already become extremely lazy and impatient, and the amount of technology we do have is minimal. Something as small as our cell phones are hard enough for humans to be pried from. I don't believe that we should do away with what we've been used to, having nothing but technology is dangerous. The little we do have is already a bit much. I think if society does decide to having nothing but technology we should slowly bring it to the society just not all at once. Then again we could be doing that now.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article "Fully Automated Luxury Communism" and my peers blog, I would have to agree with the part of your argument that robots and machines taking over human jobs is a problem. We can already see its affects in today's economy. It makes financial sense for the owners to have machines work because they do not need to be paid an hourly wage, receive benefits, or go on breaks. But the more machines we have the less job opportunities for humans. Yet some readers may challenge my view by insisting that technology is making the world better. We have come so far with the improvements in technology. We are creating better medicines, safer cars, and much more. There are countless innovations with the help of technology. On one hand i agree with the fact that technology is beneficial and necessary to our society. But on the other hand, I still insist we are integrating technology into our lives way to fast and way to much.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "Fully Automated Luxury Communism" and your blog I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with some of your statements. It was interesting seeing you relate this article to the movie Wall-E and I could possibly see that happen if our world drastically changed to fully automated in a short amount of time. I understand how you could see this happening but I feel we are more in control of our technology growth. It takes several years to advance our technology and we seem to focus a good amount of our time on it. Although not all readers agree with you saying it will take over a majority of our jobs, some might say it will take all the less advanced jobs. I agree with you stating technology will take our jobs but robots can't do it all. After all what if a robot breaks? Doesn't a human have to fix it? I feel only we can advance our technology, technology can't advance itself. So even though it will take some jobs , it could possibly give us better jobs. It will help with economic growth, finding your inner self, and family relationships because it will be giving more time for you to spend with family, doing hobbies you enjoy, and finding jobs you really want to be working. The whole part about people being lazy and getting unhealthy just depends on the person. That's how it is now, people choose to work out and eat right. Some readers may argue different from my view saying it might be the end of humans by insisting that technology will somehow make people not want to go through the work of having kids, I think people will still want to have kids and if anything it will make it easier because there will be more robots to help with childcare.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article Fully Automated Luxury Communism and the blogs written by my peers, I have to agree with this blog the most. I feel that if the world did become ruled by robots, as do you, we would all become overweight, lazy, and uninspired. Artists wouldn’t need to be creative to create beautiful masterpieces, they could just tell a machine to create it for them. Even if they had creative ideas, they would no longer need the skills that they do now to create something. Though the one good fact that could come from a society like this would be that there would no longer be poverty, or a definite separation of classes in general. For a while there would be, due to the fact that the poor probably wouldn’t be able to afford the technology that the rich would be able to, but I am sure eventually the gap would fade, and all society, just as you mentioned, would be like a “WALL-E type society”. I am sure that this society would be greatly beneficial to us all, and humans would be happier and have more fulfillment and new forms of entertainment, but I feel individuals would begin to take this for granted. I feel this would be good if we could find a way to moderate and contain it, thus not allowing people to become obese and lazy. But who knows? Maybe it wouldn’t result in a society this way, I am only stating my opinion.
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