You made me part of your forgotten dream





Solderpunk  phlogged[0] recently  in  part  about the  larger-scale
sustainability  of  people opting  to  remove  themselves from  the
'grid'. That post immediately sparked some thoughts in my mind that
others have no  doubt also pondered but I thought  I would share my
current ramblings on the subject.


He  questioned  in  part  as   to  whether  it  was  necessary  for
the  majority  of   people  to  stay  tied   to  that  consumptive,
high-infrastructure life for it to be feasible for some to maintain
a life  off the grid in  simpler housing in a  much more minimalist
way.


There has been  a variety of discussion for years  now on the topic
of automation  and its likelihood  of putting entire swaths  of the
working population out of work.  If the prices of everything remain
the same that certainly poses a  problem - millions going hungry in
the US where already one in  eight experiences food insecurity in a
year sounds like a very serious problem.

But what if you flip that unemployment problem on its head? What if
prices didn't stay the same?

With  readily  available  3D  printing in  durable  materials  with
tight tolerances,  ubiquitous and  flexible automated  assembly and
other  processes,  automated   food  production,  construction  and
transportation - could  it become quite possible for  people to not
have to work a  lot of hours to have what  they need? Certainly the
ability of a very few people to provide plenty of durable goods for
the  entire population  should be  within  reach. If  we could  but
bridge the gap  to making things in a more  recyclable fashion even
material costs might cease to be a burden on manufacturing (that is
probably the real hurdle to overcome).

At that point if  - and it's an enormous 'if' -  the price of goods
is allowed to decline along with  the costs of producing them, then
the labor  that a person has  to put forth to  cover their material
needs  should  become  very,  very  low. This  brings  to  mind  of
course  the  automobile which  Henry  Ford  made available  to  the
American common family by finding  ways to significantly reduce his
manufacturing costs. The thinking at  that time was that quality of
life should improve as it becomes cheaper and easier to make things
and  life  should get  easier.  Ford  eventually began  paying  his
workers  more in  part so  they could  buy the  products they  were
making.  We have  drifted away  from that  ideal as  the drive  for
quarterly sales and profits,  have driven designed obsolescence and
seasonal buying  cycles with marketing  pushing us to  consume more
and more. We are being driven away  from that ideal by the need for
a  greater 'return  on investment'  for  the wealthy  in the  stock
market.

If costs and labor needs plummet there is the very real possibility
of people someday living very easy lives if only we don't allow the
greed of  the wealthy to  keep prices  high and drive  ever greater
rates of consumption.  That ought to be the  outcome of drastically
cheaper manufacturing.


There is  of course also the  problem of what people  would do with
their time  given a  significant increase in  leisure. It  might in
fact be a new renaissance of  creativity for people, free to devote
themselves to things that they love, or always wanted to pursue but
were too time-consuming because of the need to subsist. There might
be problems of motivation for some  but in a generation or two that
would likely resolve itself as culture adapted. In any case finding
uses for our time would certainly  be a good problem to have versus
food insecurity, lack  of safe drinking water  and healthcare costs
bankrupting people on a wide scale.


kvothe wrote[1] some  time ago a bit on the  topic of our obsession
at being good at anything we do holding us back from doing a lot of
things. Take that  inhibition away and you have  millions of people
free to enjoy  their lives, help one another out,  teach each other
new things and study what they always wanted to study.


Furthermore of course, fields which may continue to need more human
workers  - such  as nursing  and healthcare  where labor  costs and
profit motives  lead to shortages  of workers  and poor care  - you
could certainly see more people  going into working in those fields
because they have the option and because it's very rewarding work.



Coming  back  to  Solderpunk's  point   (is  there  a  term  for  a
second-order tangent?): If  a majority of people  decided to remove
themselves from the rat race  and live minimally, disconnected from
the electrical grid and consumption for  its own sake, could such a
society  continue to  provide  the things  they  can't produce  for
themselves individually? It ought to  not be difficult at all soon,
the technology  to allow  for it seems  nearly inevitable.  A small
fraction  of  the  population  ought  to  be  able  to  manage  the
production necessary  for those  who opt out.  Opting out  might in
fact become a very popular idea, I think.


[0]gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/%7esolderpunk/phlog/can-we-all-walk-away.txt
[1]gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/1/%7ekvothe/phlog/2018-10-03-mediocrity/




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