Science fiction writers of the 40’s and 50’s saw automation as a way to have the things we want and need without a lifetime of toil. They saw these machines as labor-saving devices, and the more work the machine did, the less work humans would have to do and we would all enjoy a life of leisure, pursuing the things that humans have uniquely evolved to do such as are, music, science, and all sorts of other creative things.
Scientists and engineers shared this vision and turned science fiction into reality. Early automation (even centuries back) was designed and built by them to do dangerous and tedious work currently performed by humans, saving the lives and health of many and making it possible to create enough resources for everyone to live with less work.
Capitalists had other ideas. They saw this as a way to extract more value from each human life. Unfortunately in America capitalists hold all power and so it was their vision that prevailed, and automation brought no relief for the worker. With no reason to care for the lives of their fellow humans, the automation favored by the capitalist not only maintained the drudgery of work, but was also physically and mentally harmful to the worker and may lives were lost, shortened or permanently damaged by these machines.
After feasting on generations of blue-collar workers, white-collar work seemed safe and the next generation was pushed to pursue white-collar work. But the capitalist is a hungry ghost, never satisfied no mater how much he consumes, and by the end of that generation he built machines that could consume the white-collar worker as well.
Today we live in a world where these machines are now beginning to consume that which is considered by many to be the more unique trait of humanity: creativity. If you trace the roots I think you’ll find that human creativity is what makes most of the things we think of as uniquely human possible.
But the capitalist has no concern for humanity, even though he is human himself. He sees himself somehow above the humans he subjugates which is what allows him to be something that in the natural world we find reprehensible: a cannibal.
The capitalist has been at this for centuries now and little has been done to stop him. Some efforts have been made, but they are easily reversed because the capitalist holds all the power in America and nobody is going to use their power to diminish their own power.
But what the capitalist doesn’t seem to know is that automation of labor is ultimately incompatible with capitalism.
When workers are replaced with automation under capitalism, they must find new work in order to survive, but if automation replaces all human work, what will humans do to participate in capitalism? How will they consume the goods of the capitalist if they have no work to do to earn money? Even if some work remains, for example the repair and maintenance of the machines, this requires far fewer humans (otherwise why would the capitalist pursue it)? What happens to the rest? And on an infinite timeline even this work becomes automated as we are seeing today with the automation of both the creation and maintenance of software.
When there are no jobs for humans to do, there is no pay for humans. When there is no pay for humans, there are no consumers for capitalists.
I don’t know exactly where the tipping-point is, but at some point along this line capitalism will no longer function for the capitalist (it has been long dysfunctional for everyone else). With no one left to champion it, capitalism will die and be replaced by something else. This will probably happen fast (by sociological standards), so whatever takes its place is likely to be unplanned and organic and capable of supporting whatever humans remain with whatever resources are available.
In a way this path ends where it began, with automation replacing capitalism. Had a more direct path been chosen we could have gotten here a century or more sooner and with countless lives saved. By taking the capitalists path we not only squander time and human life, but we’ve also damaged the earth to the point that its ability to support human life at all is unlikely.
So even if on an infinite timeline the capitalists path could destroy capitalism, we may not have enough time left to find out.
It may not be too late to try another path. If it’s not it’s very close. Based on the last 200 years or so of human history I have no reason to believe that we will change paths but I would love to be proven wrong.