General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Chris Anderson: Why I left Wired - 3D Printing Will Be Bigger Than The Web [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)how will the profits, the proceeds, the benefits of this technology by rewarded? Who will benefit? Will it be displaced workers? Or will all the benefits go to a few who hire the rest of us as their servants?
The big issue now is not whether we will master the universe through our technology but how the benefits of the technology will be distributed.
Choices about socialism, communism and capitalism may, in the future, not be at all relevant. Those ideologies assume that work and capital have different functions and values that have to be reckoned.
With 3d printing and all these new technologies, is work no longer a factor to be figured in our social and political accounting?
Already, I have so many friends studying things like acupuncture and massage, etc. Seriously trying to learn those skills so that they can earn money. Then we have endless numbers of artists, it seems. (Or do I just think that because I live in LA?)
With all the technology, we have to ask ourselves, do we continue to determine who gets what based on their work? If we continue to innovate with our technology, that may not be possible in the future.