(no subject)

[beccaelizabeth]

It bothers me when headline arguments about mechanisation start out 'robots will replace you all' and end up 'don't worry, you will get new jobs in new industries'

aside from the likely inaccuracy

it's just, like, 'robots will do all the work it takes to sustain daily life and development as you know it... but you'll still have to work 40 hours a week. rejoice!'

at some point the priorities on this sci fi future got all fucked up.

Comments

[baronjanus]

Stories that are about a future where no one has to work unless they want to tend to be about how humans will grow bored and try to kill each other.

In some ways, they are right. Centuries of this unhealthy situation stunted most people, and they can't "keep themselves amused". i know people like that, in their spare time they have to have "active entertainment" constantly scheduled and outsourced or they fear they are "wasting time". It's sad, and can definitely be fixed and healed with a better political climate and some education. But. It's something worth thinking about, in fiction context.

...I can't believe I have an icon that fits this.

[beccaelizabeth]

In my experience people with no work watch a lot of tv, do dancing, and volunteer at stuff like the living history place. for some examples. also garden a lot and do fibrecrafts. fix things for fun. be social. trying to kill each other hasnt come up.

i mean there's a lot of disabled people just living lives. so.

adjusting can be a thing. also depression. or figuring out where a whole agegroup between school and retirement went.

but a lot of fiction is really dedicated to selling the idea that however much things suck they could always suck worse, like all problem no solution, blah.

there are better stories to be told. and built.

Star Trek especially Next Gen was about an entirely work optional future, and they still kept busy.

with weirdly stunted computing, but still.




... good icon

[baronjanus]

Some people, especially people who are already considered "outsiders" (yeah, that's me too), handle things in certain ways that might not work for the general population. I too prefer media where it's about solutions and making things better, rather than "things are worse than you can imagine!... if you never watched the news or opened a history book!" Those are boring unless they hit very specific kinks.

Would be cool to see people finding "vocation" or "meaning for life", for those very work-driven who no longer have money as a status symbol. That's another thing humans will have problem adjusting to: humans always find ways to be "richer" than one another. Or better, or holier than thou, or some other form of ranking and hierarchy and feeling better about themselves by feeling better than others.

Star Trek people we saw mostly had jobs, very important jobs, and daring adventures and exploration and high skills.

There are people. Okay, I'll go personal info: my sister (and her husband, according to her) think that anyone who doesn't work constantly and makes lots of money is a worthless parasite and not a full human being. I know this because she tells me very often, citing "honesty". I, a generally honest person, do not bother to tell her that this approach is creepy as all fuck and considered, by me and everyone I know, utterly despicable. Because I don't think she cares and I don't feel like wasting breath. But she is not the outlier. There are many like her. She has kids, she'll teach them to be like that too. And various other much more dangerous views. They are nice, intelligent kids. But they'll likely grow up to think that.

...I think that there are a lot of people in this world who do not want things to get better, because then they'll have to admit their current way is not the best of all possible worlds, and that hurts them, shakes their worldview. I'm not sure they can handle it easily. This has gone way deeper than where I started, which was a discussion about futuristic fiction. I'm sorry.