…if all labour were to be replaced by autonomous robots. Prices would drop to zero since companies aren’t making or losing money anymore, and money would become worthless.
…if all labour were to be replaced by autonomous robots. Prices would drop to zero since companies aren’t making or losing money anymore, and money would become worthless.
You’ve just described the post-scarcity economy.
I think of the two possible trajectories as the Star Wars universe and the Star Trek universe. Both have fully automated supply chains through droids/replicator technology. However, in Star Wars, only the elite few have access to that technology. Hence, the economy is still centered around trade and, well, as the title would suggest — wars. In Star Trek, that technology is democratized and made available to everyone to create a world in which money has no meaning, and everyone has access to technology and meeting their basic needs.
It all depends on what kind of society we decide to build from here on out.
The Orville has a great take on it too.
There’s an episode where they bring in someone from a scarcity-era planet and she’s freaking out about how they have replicators and future medical tech, and the crew explains to her that if the technology were airdropped on her world, thry wouldn’t be socially ready for it and it would just become a means of further stratification.
Guess i need to watch star trek now