NASA headed towards giant golden asteroid that could make everyone on Earth a billionaire

submitted by EthnocratArcheofuturist from (self.debatealtright)

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[–]casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

artificial scarcity and planned obsolescence

That's not about pricing. That's an industrial policy. They'd charge far more for a smartphone if they made it to last for decades. If the current smartphone is 1000$, it would have to be 5000$. Because they wouldn't be selling you another phone for 7-8 years. They would have to make the money in one leap.

The people who run businesses have to put food on the table as well. Yes, in theory, the price of a long-lasting smartphone could be much lower than it is today. In theory, the price could be equal to what it costs to build a smartphone in the first place: materials, electricity, labor, R&D....but then the company would not be able to make any profit.

Without profit, they could not keep paying their employees in a competitive world with rising prices and demands. They also would not be able to make any new smartphones anymore as they would have no surplus income to invest in.

That world you think of could only come about if the whole economy was run top to bottom by a machine overlord with zero human labor. It would simply build stuff and give it to humans who do nothing.

[–]EthnocratArcheofuturist[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You're basically describing intrinsic obsolescence. It's why the price system will never be truly efficient. And running the economy like a machine is possible now.

[–]casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

And running the economy like a machine is possible now.

Nowhere close. Machines can't do the job of an engineer, doctor, financial analyst, or lawyer. Even if those roles are somewhat filled by advances in algorithms, the role of a researcher, scientist, and creative artist can never be filled by machines. They are simply not capable of that.

What I'm talking about is something more total.

Imagine a country where mining, agriculture, metal refining, machine building, industrial production, quality control, supply chains, power, R&D, distribution....everything is done by machines under the control of a central AI. Humans essentially do nothing except politics, defense, or arts.

In that economy, you'd have a truly perfect pricing system as you wouldn't have to pay anyone wages or seek any profit at all. That's certainly not possible today and I doubt it ever will be. Heck, they couldn't automate plumbers and electricians, forget engineers and doctors!

[–]EthnocratArcheofuturist[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I said running the economy. Not automating literally everything.