Battleangel

Someone over at Metafilter started a thread about one of the many implications of nanotechnology. Namely not having to work, ever. Well, maybe. Well, most of us in the western world don’t HAVE to work at the present either, but we still do. So maybe we can’t make food out of grass clippings yet, but if made more efficient (though more factory farming is hardly the ideal solution), a percent or less of the population could probably feed the rest on veggies. Unlike a century ago when three quarters or more were engaged in some form of agriculture. Yet, most people work with things that are far detached from clothing and feeding mankind. I don’t see how having “assemblers” would change that. Unless they suddenly fell in our laps and were distributed starting from the lowest social strata. Which in itself is more unrealistic than nanotechnology itself. The cumbersome technology will, barring essentially a miracle and if even conceived within this lifetime, no doubt be researched by some university and funded / acquired by some transnational corporation. Said entities would most likely sell us the food made out of “grass clippings” and the economy would be maintained, and if the technology would ever start trickling down to consumers it would quickly be restricted, no doubt deceitfully citing “grey goo” concerns.

Only one person in the above thread came to this realistic conclusion, noting that we have put ourselves in a social prison of sorts that no technology can ever break us out of. First there is the obvious problem with capitalists, and adding insult to injury, most people would never be able to adjust to not having to work, having spent a while in the ferret wheel. The sort of theoretical bravado of blank slates, end-of-the-world-scenarios and natural states required to get oneself out of this conundrum is simply staggering.

As a technocrat, I know that technology does indeed promise these utopian visions, the problem, as always, is really all the “pink goo” that stands in the way of true progress. Not just research reports amassing on a library shelf or fantastic quarter earnings by transnationals, but actual progress that impacts and directly improves the lives of ordinary people.