Everyone wants a better future, not only for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren. Society is supposed to continue getting better with each passing generation, and we hope that this trend continues far into the future. If anything, we want this to happen faster! In this article, I want to discuss how technologies we’re excited about today can improve society in ways much bigger than most of us think. But, to see these full benefits, we’re going to have to do something most people find a little off-putting.
Clean Energy, Efficient Technology, and Autonomous Machines Can Save A LOT of Time & Effort Let’s start with something most readers can agree with: technology means prosperity. I don’t mean to say that there are no drawbacks and that new technologies don’t ever go wrong, but on average, new technologies save us a lot of trouble over time. Instead of walking, we can drive, ride, or fly. Instead of digging a trench or a ditch, machines can help us do it in a fraction of the time. Now, doing heavy and/or tedious labor is becoming even easier with automation.
We may get to the point where there just isn’t enough human work to go around. Automated factories, automated burger machines, self-driving cars, and such will make many jobs obsolete. Some say that the jobs will be replaced with better jobs, while others think that the jobs aren’t coming back, so we’d better do something else to keep the economy going, like pay out a universal basic income (UBI).
I’m going to sidestep this issue for now, largely because I think that the whole framing of UBI being the answer to automation is a bit like putting the cart before the horse.
Regardless of where you stand on UBI, it’s hard to argue against the idea that cheap, abundant energy that doesn’t hurt us combined with automation massively increases productivity and creates a lot of wealth. Possible social ills aside for now, there’s a lot of value that these technologies unlocks.