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rob05c  ·  3256 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ask Hubski: What would you do with your free time if you didn't have to work?

    I just don't think we're quite there yet in terms of automation capacity.

I agree. We're at an awkward in-between phase, and have been for 150 years, really. We have enough automation and mass production to destabilise the labour-based economy, but not enough yet that no one need work unless they want to. We'll get there, but it might take another 20–100 years.

But I still think now is a good time to implement BI. If we implement BI today, most people will keep their jobs out of fear it'll be repealed when it's unsustainable. For at least one generation. Twenty years from now, the next generation grows up expecting BI, and we have say 20% less workforce, which is counterbalanced by increased automation. Fast forward 100 years, and we see a logarithmic decrease of involuntary work and increase of automation, until we achieve Star Trek utopia. That's the theory anyway. If it doesn't work, we can always repeal it, right?