The acronym RoR , short for Rise of the Robots, refers to the totality of the sweeping changes that newly emerging disruptive technologies will bring to our economy, our society, and our culture. These technologies involve far more than just robots, they include artificial intelligence, machine learning, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and whatever else is coming which we can not yet even imagine. The RoR is the sum of all these technological revolutions operating synergistically. A brave new world is fast approaching, and I’m not sure we’re ready for it.
This website is primarily concerned with a specific subset of these technologies, elements of which are spread throughout the various disciplines, which touch upon, and thus transform, our existing relations of capitalist production. Throughout this website I will present multiple proofs that because these technologies will revolutionize the manner in which we produce the commodities we need and want, they will also revolutionize the social arrangements we have customarily employed to produce as a society. We are so familiar with these relations we assume that they are somehow woven into the warp and woof of nature itself. They are not. They arose to suit a specific method of manufacture, and for hundreds of years they they have served that method well. Now that method is changing.
The RoR is going to be a time of great change, fraught with peril, but also bearing tremendous potential. How we get through it, both individually and as a society, is up to us. This website is an attempt to popularize thinking on this subject and generate discussion on how we as a civilization want to handle it. We must address this. Some of the brightest minds on the planet (Stephen Hawking, for example) are even now warning that if we don’t handle it well, it may well handle us.
Now, let’s get to those 4 simple questions:
Question 1. We’ve heard all of this before. What makes this time any different?
This time is different because of the way these new technologies devastate the old relations of production. Capitalism will no longer need workers in sufficient quantity to sustain the social contract of employer/employee relations we’ve built our society on. It’s not a matter of more education, or new skills. The issue is a permanent, dire lack of effective demand for labor power.
In a sense what we are seeing is the full maturation of the capitalist system— its teleology being played-out. Capitalism had a purpose — to unleash the full productive capabilities of the industrial revolution. It has succeeded admirably (OK, there have been a few bumps in the road, but overall, it has brought us to where we need to be). The end of capitalism comes, as Joseph Schumpeter declared, because of capitalism’s success, not because of internal inconsistencies. Schumpeter declared the essential nature of capitalism to be “creative destruction,” an unceasing drive to innovation and improvement. This idea is directly attributable to Karl Marx who wrote that ” the bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the means of production.” But Marx went on to say that by revolutionizing the means of production we end up revolutionizing the relations of production and ultimately the whole relations of society. This occurs because, as Marx explains elsewhere, at a certain point in their development the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production. The RoR is just such a time.
Question 2. What about those who say the rise of the robots will create new jobs?
It will… at first.
A recent Pew survey of nearly two thousand experts working in these fields found that slightly more than half believed the rise of the robots will create more jobs than it destroys. But it is important to note that they were asked only about the next ten years. Certainly some companies which are early adopters will be more competitive, and thus able grow and hire more people for their non-automated positions. Additionally, new employment opportunities will open up in the fields of robotics, coding, big data,etc.
But what about the long line, twenty or thirty years from now, a time frame well within the career arc of present day college students? Robots will only get cheaper, smarter and more proficient. Those very virtues which drive the capitalist engine — competition, innovation, improvements in efficiency and productivity — will all conspire to accelerate the displacement of human workers.
Question 3. Will the capitalist system really allow this to happen to itself?
Yes, capitalism does not have an internal referee (we’ll leave oligopolies, cartels, monopolies, and other market perversions, out of the discussion for now). The pursuit of profits is blind to externalized repercussions, and the coercive power of competition forces players to conform to “best practices” or fall behind. There is no mechanism to limit the social effects of Smith’s invisible hand to beneficial outcomes only. The capitalist system has in the past shown a willingness to drive off any cliff in pursuit of profits.
This does not mean that we should expect capitalism to go gently into that good night. Those oligopolies, cartels and monopolies will do all they can to squeeze maximum profits out of existing arrangements and we should expect all entrenched, vested interests to turn and fight once they become conscious of the conflict they have created.
Question 4. Will the government really allow this to happen to society?
This is what it all comes down to. No. The government will not stand by and allow everything to unravel. Societies do collapse, but that is not likely to happen this time. Ultimately, governments will act to secure social stability. The real question is not if governments will respond but how.
Will we sink into a repressive, totalitarian state — the boot stamping the human face forever — that Orwell warned of? Will we be duped into accepting a compromise of subsumption, where the human race is essentially kept as pets of some small cult of Galtian overlords, the high priests of private ownership? Or will we achieve the promise of these new technologies, a more just and equitable society. Not some imaginary techno-utopia, but a real- world, warts-and-all society which progresses in the direction of making life on this planet just a little less miserable for everyone.
That would be progress.
Which outcome prevails depends entirely on how we “become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.” We’ve a world to win and a universally distributed understanding of what is at stake is of paramount importance.
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