Human

From Mylegokingdom

Thank you for your thoughtful cometnms. In carefully considering a meaningful response, I found myself impressed by how many other relevant issues you have raised in so few, but well placed, words.1) You illustrate a point that I did not discuss well at all, that essentially what we are talking about here is not just change but social change. i.e. Changing Humans. For a technologically powered society to be a force of freedom and social wealth, humans will have to change. I don't think that the economy itself needs to change much because it's evident that we already have a tech powered society. We just don't have one that we have fully adapted to (yet). 2) When we are talking about how we get humans to change, we are essentially talking about Motivation. Without it, the economic forces in play will not wait for us, and if we are not prepared for that there will certainly be a vacuum, as Mugabe created by not fulfilling the cavity left after he defeated the previous Rhodesian powers. I am not convinced that fear is a reliable motivational tool when dealing with a society, perhaps for individuals, but most people are able to rationalise away their individual risk to the community at large. 3) And Anarchy, seems to surface in times of confusion and indecision. When the masses have a clear villain or enemy or obstacle they tend not to engage in rebellious or anti-social activities, but rather align their common purpose and reinforce each other's resolve. An Economic shift is a common obstacle and when the force of technological progress is known there will probably be little confusion as to the true challenge facing humanity.4) We humans tend to be a rather stubborn lot. Bombs, threats, fear, poverty even education will most likely have very little power to actually motivate people to change. I think it could be argued that some of those approaches may indeed cause people to be even more stubborn.5) There is, luckily, a very effective way to motivate societies to implement massive social change : Social Conditioning This is when people are conditioned by society's behaviours. i.e. If everyone around you in the society you are in, seems to hold a belief or perform a ritual or has a programmed response, then YOU too will have a natural (and statistical) tendency to propagate it further.If you want society to do anything (and I mean ANYTHING) all you have to do is propagate a social belief or ritual and it will become self-sustaining, causing others to follow, who in turn cause others.People who are otherwise rational and intelligent people, will do the strangest things, simply because everyone around them is doing it. I dare anyone to look at a few of the hairstyle or fashion photographs taken in the eighties, and tell me that rational people can resist social conditioning.So to answer your question, the solution is to create, both in a propagandistic and a pragmatic way, a sense that everyone (A) Believes that technology is purely there for the benefit of all humanity, (B) that less and less people will be working, and that is a GOOD thing, and everyone will be doing it , (C) that while there will be many who need to participate in the economy, but they would be ridiculous to ask for any form of pay, and they are only working while we figure our a way to replace their duties with some new technology. Essentially we have to fake it to make it.Stephen Is(hint: Public relations, Propaganda and Socially influencing commentary and litte9rateur is a well formed science.)