In another thread a user argued that "technology is what drives society to a more mature state". I wish that was true, but to me technology and society's advancement at social/human level are disconnected.
I really hope that the decline of the average working hours per week in the "western world" becomes a central point of discussion, the next decade. We don't need to work many hours to get the essentials to live a comfortable life.
We have all the technology we need to produce food and shelter at extremely LOW prices.
Of course if someone wants to be Elon Musk ( I wish I was), he should be free to pursue his interests, but average Joe who only wants to support his family and enjoy friends and baseball, should be working a lot less when we will have robots, not feel threatened by unemployment.
I think are more accurate quote would be "Technology is what allows a society to achieve a mature state."
Just like freedom and basic human rights don't necessary make one happy, they do set the conditions to allow happiness to exist. I think technology has a similar "enabling but not guaranteeing" property for various societal metrics.
The challenge, perhaps, is to make sure technology serve the majority, not just further the select few whole control and horde it.
With the full risk of generalization, average Joe also want bigger car,bigger lawn and more bedrooms than average Bob, and that's where the problem arises.
Hm, there is Maslow's pyramid that could be seen as a general model[1] along with the human rights[2].
The problem is not the car. The problem (in the US and now in Europe too) is healthcare, food and shelter (own home). These things, given the tech, should come for almost free IMHO, for any individual who lives in a "civilized country".
Of course, there are many problems: illegal immigration[3], health care costs, etc. But technology should be used to do all these things cheaper for the masses, leading to a higher average standard of life.
I really hope that the decline of the average working hours per week in the "western world" becomes a central point of discussion, the next decade. We don't need to work many hours to get the essentials to live a comfortable life.
We have all the technology we need to produce food and shelter at extremely LOW prices.
Of course if someone wants to be Elon Musk ( I wish I was), he should be free to pursue his interests, but average Joe who only wants to support his family and enjoy friends and baseball, should be working a lot less when we will have robots, not feel threatened by unemployment.