z SS GEOL oe DT

a Tees =

"iby Jorma Jyrkkanen

I T prophesy a day not far off
when robots will be managed,
maintained and programmed by
artificially intelligent computers.

These high-tech industries will
be. so efficient that they will

.monopolize the manufacturing

industry, and the owners of
these machines will become in-
credibly wealthy. .

' The world will be flooded
with products of these ‘tireless
machines even as it is flooded
with people.

These intrepid oil can-
- microchip hybrids will put the

conventional producers out of
business, monopolize the market
place, fix prices and then just as
doggedly continue to destroy
their own markets with surplus
production.

_ There’s just one hitch.

- Who is going to be able to af-

ford to buy those products? -
Certainly not those unfor-

tunates who got kicked out of a

Hee Pal Ye

They gave their all to the in-
dustrial revolution and now it
has advanced to the point where
it is saying, “sorry bud, we
don’t need you anymore.””

“Go fly a kite, or watch TV or
something, or go pick raspber-
ries for a wealthy farmer.”

People will be hanging up
their welding helmets, putting
away their drafting tables, turn-
ing off the manually-operated
lathes and taking their tools to
the. museum.

Then they are going to put

their feet up and say, ‘‘Isn’t this.
great, we don’t need to work —

anymore.”’ Right?

The government will provide
them a free copy of the latest hit
‘‘Raspberry Fields Forever
played by the Feebles’’.

-I see a hitch, a fly in the soup,
a mosquito in ‘the tent.

Our hunter-gatherer instincts

need an outlet. We need to feel
that we are contributing to our
survival, at a deep instinctive
level,

People need to have a sense of |
" purpose and of belonging and a

feeling of being productive.
We havea need to be able to

look forward to prosperity and ©

family and children and produc-
tive goals in life.

We need to make things with
our hands.

Robots rob us of the fulfill-

-ment of these human needs.

Neither can the raspberry

-fields, brush cutting jobs and

farcical. short: term make-work
projects satisfy them.

At what level of. unemploy-
ment will humanity revolt and

o a
Ba een Pestana rag TimbaBSe
PTE TOE ng pn reo “4

Tise up against the machines?

Will it be at 10 percent, 20 per-
cent or 50 percent?
I don’t know what level will

pull the trigger, but it must at.

some point.

How will we feed, house and
clothe the burgeoning human_
population, increasing at an*
alarming rate, when the money
from industrial production is go-
ing straight into the hands of the
relatively few owners of: the

Means of production, the

wealthy owners of Al (artificial-
ly_ intelligent) computers and
robots? -

The human and social cost of change:
: Robots and artificial intelligence

. job by this development.

People may sabotage the
machines to challenge the right
of ownership of the means of
production at every opportuni-
ty.

Police would rush to the fac-
tories to bonk the revolting
masses on the head, to protect
law and order.

Could it be that there will be a
violent revolution?

It would be the masses of the

- industrialized world against the

police, the government, the

military who are conned into »

thinking that they are protecting

democracy who will in fact. be

*“We need to feel that we are
contributing to our survival..,”’

It seems to me that we will on-

ly be able to tax the few blue col-

lar.and white collar workers left.

that are machine ‘interactive to a
point and they will cry foul.
Then people will have to hit
the owners. .
Will they part with their

wealth easily? I think not.

But, part with it they must,
for if they do not, there will be
uncivil war,

The owners are not going to

give up their lot peacefully; nor.
will they allow governments into’

power that “try to’ impoverish
them through high taxation. —
They will campaign for can-
didates who protect their in-
terests, crying always that it is

Thecessary to protect the system,

the very system that will rob
people of their humanity,
One day, all of the displaced

‘people will cry foul.

defending inhumanity, dispari-
ty, social bankruptcy, and the
owners of robots and AI; .

The masses will prevail if they

- are to survive.

I predict that if the injustice
becomes too severe, between the

haves and the have-nots, that .-

perhaps Communism will try to
emerge as the salvation of the
machine displaced masses, but it

will be a significantly liberalized

version by that time.

At that point, either there will
be a diversioriary World War
Three and the planet will crum-
ble or the system will crumble
from within, and some form of
altruistic socialism will take its
place, because it will have ‘the
support of the ‘Used-to-be-
Working Classes’ of the world.

In this new conflict, the cill to
arms will be ‘Used-to-be-

. Workers of the World, unite.’

at aa 4 eae wees ae ws te goo ag Ee Gay eee a
SSAA DIS men 3 I TM Sie ch See a : ee

Sabotage will be code 7
with rusting agents, acid and

false labels for micro-chips or
perhaps more deviously, virus

' programs loaded into read- ‘only-

memory.
In the end, people must win or
the whole thing will grind toa
halt,
The technological revolution
has then led to this point, in my
view, through the efforts of the

political majority, the advocates _
of. blind progress, the values -

system of the Judeo Christian
empire quoting the Bible which
said ‘Go forth and multiply!”

If we can make it work. |

somehow, and I am very skep-
tical about this, it will lead us to
the point where we tax ‘the
owners of production to the
point where all the rest -of
humanity that is displaced’ by
machines are supported by that
taxation.

And that could form a large
percent of the workd’s popula:
tion.

The owners will in ” fact
become the servants of a large

group of people who do nothing |

productive whatsoever.

‘The unemployed will in fact:
live like the kings of old, being
completely looked after ‘by the
owners and their machines.

Perhaps: there As _justice in
that.

The industrial era began when
an act.of government destroyed
the forests of England and put
an end to the independent sub-
sistence life of the British
country folk.

They were forced to move to

. continued on page 23

Gitt
Baskets

* Mugs
% Jams
* Flowers

It’ s CHRIS TMAS at

% JUDY'S Séce CHOCOLATES

* Convenience of telephone ordering
* Can. be delivered in greater Terrace

The NEWEST Gift Idea
for Christmas ‘87

. Come In and see Maria,
on your Christmas list.

Grace ond their staff for that unique gift for the special person

nn ete . : cere?
' SKEENA MALL — 635-4080
: ; °
To Ge 1 | .

. nN ‘
a .
to

(eae re

Ne aang ree