Cinegraphic: The Law of Automation

from Cinegraphic.net:

The Law of Automation

URL: https://www.cinegraphic.net/article.php?story=20120726193923587

The Law of Automation is very simple:

Anything that can be automated, will be.

The results of this law are immediately obvious: every low skilled job that can readily be described by a limited set of algo-rules will be replaced by automation. The first stages are abundantly on view around us: how long before the iPhone's voice response system SIRI asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

The problem that automation will pose in the very near future is two-fold: (1) what will happen to all the members of the now idle workforce, and (2) since automation undoes the foundations of a consumer capitalism (workers without wages cannot consume), what systemic changes will be required in the aftermath of automation outside the assembly-line factory?

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