Showing posts with label social contract. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social contract. Show all posts

The Dark Side of Automation, AI and Robotics

By nature I'm an optimistic person.  By profession I am a futurist that studies historic patterns and future trends.  By education I am an economist and political scientist. All of these background influences come together when I am pondering the future, and lately I have been contemplating automation and job displacements.

I remember studying the concept of social contract in college.  It's a theory that describes an agreement among individuals in a society to create and abide by a set of rules, norms, and governance structures to ensure mutual benefit, security, and order.  The idea is we agree to give up some rights and independence in order to gain certain benefits that will help us have a greater quality of life, and hopefully an improved standard of living.  Think of being taxed, so we can have roads, bridges, public education, police and firefighters.

What happens though when the "mutual benefits" agreed to, fall out of balance, and the benefits are weighted in favor of one group over another?  The short answer is - bad things.  

Interviews with Kevin Benedict