Re:The Machine: On our collective efforts to save ourselves
by philipkglass on Monday January 16, 2017 @02:22PM
(#13412232)
Do you actually envision a single Machine to do all of this? I upvoted the entry because I think it's in the neighborhood of correct, but I'd expect to actually have a suite of many different kinds of machines, much like today's industries, but eliminating dependencies on fossil fuels and human labor. I'd expect machine-built greenhouses containing farming machines rather than actually manufactured carrots, for example.
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Re:The Machine: On our collective efforts to save ourselves
by TaylorAlexander on Monday January 16, 2017 @02:25PM
(#13412252)
Absolutely this is a thought experiment where "an economy" might be The Machine.
I also thought of explaining this concept using a magic wand, but wanted something more grounded.
But calling it a machine I think helps us avoid some of our political hang ups about organizing the productive machinery of society. Even if The Machine ends up being more like our normal economy.
I still hope some day we can literally have a large machine that does a bunch of this. I do think it would be truly useful.