The majority of the slave labor in prisons in the US make from nothing at all to 50 cents per hour.

The powers that be will still shamefully be exploiting that labor source long after AI/robots are capable of cheaply doing that work.

It brings people together for mating.

It wasn't only industrialization.

Even today, before AI, once you find a mate, THEN, you move to the suburbs.

Just look at real estate prices in New York, SF, Boston, etc. Yes, people REALLY like cities. Even the wealthiest people who can afford anything still choose cities

Well, nice to meet you, I'm a city dweller who works from home and can technically live where ever I want. I choose the city because I like it and I want my family to have nice things. I like walking to the kid's school and not owning a car and being close to amenities.

I live in a city too, but I do not think that makes me very unique ;)

Peoples talking styles are being changed by AI. Son online, you get real people, AI slop, and real people that are adapting.

But generally, the migration to the suburbs is a pretty studied thing. I assumed it was just a known phenomena.

So

There was farms to city. For few decades.

Then city to suburbs. for few decades. (cities deteriorated)

Then Covid, and here you are correct, some people that lived in cities for jobs, did migrate to 'smaller cities' when they could work remote.

And now? Seems like people are building little mini-cities? Where they can live, work, and walk to shops. People want the city feel, without the large city hassle? Like a village? But, not just a small town, its like new planned small towns. Back to the village.

But your ordering works well for remote thinly populated areas. Hungering for a mate there is like waiting on the floor of an ocean trench for a sinking whale corpse.

Many people like living next to other people purely for social reasons.

given all of the issues with people getting attached to their online girlfriend -- it's already happening

Maybe we can eventually “trick” the human brain, but I think it will be much more challenging than people think. I would imagine if people even just knew someone was a robot, the jig is up. For most people. It wouldn’t be enough to create the perfect humanoid robot. We’d also have to make them hidden in plain sight. Full Ex Machina style.

In my humble opinion, they are the epitome of uncool.

I am also gay, so it's difficult for me to address these things because I completely reject the heteronormitive perspective. I basically believe all gender roles are dumb and should not exist, but generally straight people do not like to hear that. And, I can't blame them, because for them, they often don't have the option to reject gender norms. It's a mind field in the heterosexual dating world because everyone is forced to balance the new-age of gender progression mixed with millennia of gender norms and expectations. I do, however, think it will improve in time. We are very much still in the growing pains era.

It depends on what you mean by "comfortable."

A lot of people who moved to less populated areas found they weren't fully prepared to live with fewer amenities and choice in every aspect of life, from hospitals to supermarkets to mates.

There was a meaningful post-COVID return to cities and it wasn't driven exclusively by return to office mandates.

Umm what? Humans are social animals and many people LIKE living in cities in close proximity to other people and close to amenities. I do not see a future where we decentralize and spread out because of AI.

Our current social structure is actively resistant to decentralization and I don't see that changing unless there is some forcing function to break that hold and keep it broken for new norms to settle into expectations.

Anyways, there is nobody saying that you can not stay in a big city.

The core of the claim is that people on aggregate will not pay a city premium when it does not come with a job premium.

To your benefit: cities will likely become much cheaper! (and more filthy and crime ridden, but that's another talk).

However, what I think we will see is hyper agglomoration. We will likely see 2 or 3 mega cities where the last interesting jobs will remain along with basically all wealth.

These cities will be incredibly exclusive.

Likely one city in the US and one city in Asia somewhere.

The EU will likely be the big looser.

Absolutely right about war and technology too. Also right about plans being mostly useless.

Amazing analysis, thanks for this comment!

There will obviously still be reasons for people to live close together: humans are social creatures, and centralization allows for more efficient transportation.