Friday, March 11, 2016

Optimism indeed...

Greetings good citizen, Welcome to my new soapbox where we will journey into the past and marvel at how the self-professed 'Futurists' got it so wrong...

But that would get old quick so I will add that some of the 'predictions' of these far-sighted 'imagineers' could lead to our salvation.

Yes sirree Good Citizen! What this blog holds out to all with the mind to grasp it is HOPE, we can indeed avoid the trainwreck we all see coming.

Take a good look around you good citizen. The world is coming apart at the seams, mismanagement is omnipresent and justice has a price tag hanging from it.

Worse, most of you have seen that there is no way to use the system to fix the system, the strings are where they were intended to be, well beyond YOUR reach.

It's not helpful in the least to point out that the leaky, limping madhouse we live in is overseen by college graduates, proving that college serves more as a 'fraternity' than institutions of higher knowledge. a money-fueled filter intended to keep the 'unwashed' from anything resembling the decisionmaking process.

But I digress, Let us return to the days when staying abreast of technologies march into a bright future was akin to a holy calling of devotion.

No doubt about it, The Futurists were born during a time when technology was transforming nearly every aspect of life on a nearly daily basis. These dreamers had little reason to 'hold back'.

Flying cars? Well, that vision persisted into the fifties and several prototypes were developed but in the end the liability proved too much for even the most fearless investor.

Push button food? Some opine microwaves are the incarnation of this 'out of the 'can/pkg', into the man' phenomenon but GMOs are just getting started...for better or worse. Which is to say the jury is still out on this one.

We'd be all over the map if we were to visit every frontier imagined by those who dreamed of what the future might be like...and while the pace of technology has slowed down considerably (for a very disturbing reason, do you know what that reason is?) we will drift to an arena that has preoccupied many a Futurist's mind...automation.

Even with off the charts unemployment it is not uncommon to hear 'someday a robot will be doing...'[fill-in-the-blank.} The not particularly bright futurist dreamt of a future where humans filled their days exploring while living off (the imaginary) 'fat of the land', robots would see to our every need (and,left unexplained, the rest of us would live off the trust funds our parents' patents on various robotic innovations would provide for us.)

Another factor the more attentive Futurist foresaw was the 'population boom', that advances in medical technology would mean more people lived longer...sort of dooming the dreams of the roboteers because robots don't buy what they make, only 'human robots' do.

Well, what did these more astute imagineers see? They saw a future with full employment driven by a shorter workweek/day.

Wait a minute...you can't make it on forty hours pay, how are you supposed to get by on 20?

Let's retrace our steps for a second and visit something they don't teach you in college...all money is 'funny'. Loyal readers are enlightened to this fact. I have long railed against the perversions perpetrated by the 'artificially rich' [hoping that someday others would join in my outrage.]

You'll get by just fine on half the hours because either wages will raise to make up the difference or prices will drop...and it is my 'opinion' that many things that serve as 'income streams'[so a few can be rich] today will revert to their natural 'free state' so we can establish a 'sustainable economy'

Apparently brevity is shortest route to the heart of the reader. While you may never read anything more important, it is equally important for me to respect your time constraints.

Until next time, Thank You for letting me inside your head,

Gegner



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