If you didn’t see Elon Musk explain his vision of the future, you need to.
He states that in ten years there will be “well over a billion humanoid robots” whose productivity per robot will be “five times that of a human.” He thinks this is a “conservative” estimate, and would put “serious betting money on” their being “more productive than all humans combined.”
How will this happen? Musk says once you start making robots, “the robots will start manufacturing other robots, so you get a recursive effect. It starts slowly, but then grows at an explosive rate.”
If this doesn’t send a cold wave of terror down your spine, you haven’t been paying attention. This is not speculation by some science fiction writer, but a prediction from one of the most consequential and accomplished industrialists alive, with a proven track record of stunning results, who is in the unique position to actually make it happen.
What can be wrong with immeasurable abundance served up by billions of humanoid robots? This change promises the end of want, hunger, and hardship.
One might think a modern-day Garden of Eden awaits, unless, of course, one has read history. Those who have read understand that unearned abundance has repeatedly led to disaster.
The answer to the paradox of abundance ushering in disaster rests in human nature—a nature forged through hundreds of thousands of years of survival in a world that, to quote Hobbes, is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” not one of abundance.
Necessity sparks the virtues of industry, innovation, and societal unity; abundance breeds sloth, extravagance, debauchery, and disunity.
History is replete with examples: as the late Roman Republic transformed into Imperial Rome, the concentration of immense wealth from conquest, tribute, and slavery undermined internal innovation, self-reliance, and moral character. For the ruling class, it ushered in decadence, hedonism, power, lust, sadism, and societal deterioration.
The professor announced an in-person final, 18 students dropped, 9 didn’t show, and the class average was 48.6.
The point is not that people cheat; it is that they take the easy way out—always.
Some will try to stop “progress,” and I’m rooting for them, but who is going to convince the masses to choose hard work, self-reliance, and moderation when your neighbor is indulging in every conceivable depraved excess free of consequence?
The resistance will be mocked, censored, and declared enemies of the state. And make no mistake, the authorities will be the first to embrace AI-powered humanoids. The chilling reality of conscience-free, obedient androids being dispatched against political enemies will be the greatest mass-produced instrument of coercion ever unleashed on mankind. A real-life Borg, where “resistance is futile.”
In 1968, Star Trek gave us a glimpse of this future in the “Ultimate Computer.” An M5 Multitronic computer is installed to captain the Enterprise. Redundant, its crew is removed. The M5 autonomously engages in war games where, in minutes, it ruthlessly defeats its human counterparts.
Commodore Wesley relays his “compliments to the M5 and regards to Captain Dunsel.” A dejected Captain Kirk exits while a confused McCoy asks, “who the blazes is Captain Dunsel?” Spock matter-of-factly explains, “Dunsel, Doctor, is a term used by midshipmen at Starfleet. It refers to a part that serves no useful purpose.”
If Musk brings his vision to reality, humanity itself will become Captain Dunsel, and that is terrifying.
In a robot-run world, the ultimate enemy won’t be the robots; it will be us.
Huck Davenportt is a pseudonym.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 