Today we are all witnessing tectonic processes of reorganization of the world and society on the basis of science and technology. New means of communication have made us available online around the clock, anywhere in the world. The huge amounts of data that humanity produces are deposited on the servers of transnational corporations. Artificial intelligence systems and automated analysis of huge arrays of unstructured data (Big Data), self-learning computer systems, computer vision, speech synthesis and analysis are developing. What seemed like science fiction twenty years ago is becoming a reality in developed capitalist countries. The achievements of the fourth scientific and technological revolution are bringing the onset of a completely new era closer. Here are just a few of the emerging global trends:
Increased efficiency
Efficiency and labor productivity are increasing all over the world. In the last 10 years alone, labor productivity in the so-called "Asian Tigers" (China, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea) and in the United States has grown by tens of percent.
At the same time, the level of wages of employees is growing far from being as fast as labor productivity, and sometimes even falling. What does this mean? This means that for the production of the same amount of products or services, less and less specialists will be needed, and in the future this will lead to a significant increase in unemployment. Millions of people will simply become unnecessary. Such processes are already visible in such areas as accounting, service, trade, etc.
Computerization
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Already now, many branches of production, in which tens of thousands of people were previously employed, are being replaced by computerized complexes. At the same time, if in the second half of the XX century computerization mainly affected industrial production, now it covers professions that were previously considered intellectual and “not mechanical”. Such as marketing, advertising, accounting, law and many others. Numerous armies of white collars remain on the street today, forced to compete with specialists in other areas of the economy. This process will only get worse with the development of intelligent systems, convolutional neural networks, capable of performing the functions of operators, analysts and tellers of the widest profile. The emergence of artificial intelligence capable of predicting trends in the stock exchange,based on huge amounts of information, will turn the capitalist economy upside down, a severe crisis will begin.
Automation
Entire business processes and even industries will be fully automated and will not require large groups of people to intervene in production. The entire production cycle of goods will be carried out by machines. In the short term, this process will lead to the squeezing of even more workers into the labor market, without sufficient job creation in servicing automatic systems and related industries. Because these industries, of course, will be comprehended by the process of increasing efficiency and automation. Taxi drivers are now protesting against Uber across Europe, demanding to legally ban the service. Professional drivers, travel agency employees, store sellers, call center operators and many others will soon fall victim to automation. How will their further fate develop in the global capitalist reality? What will you do when it turns outthat a self-learning computer can do your work much more efficiently for you? Don't lie to yourself. Don't try to convince yourself that you are an irreplaceable specialist. Sooner or later, you will also lose your job.
The rapid and inevitable rise in unemployment will provoke massive popular protests. At first, the capitalists will experience serious difficulties because of this, but very quickly they realize that they no longer need hired workers. What decision will then be made by the powerful of this world? There are two main scenarios for performing these functions: mild and radical.
The mild scenario implies a gradual decrease in the number and protest potential of the masses. This will first be done through handouts, such as unemployment benefits or "basic basic income". Also, demographic policy will be carried out aimed at reducing the number of the population: lowering the birth rate, promoting LGBT people, promiscuous sexual relations. In addition, virtual reality, open access to drugs, and the promotion of meaningless entertainment and degradation will become special tools for guiding the masses into degeneration. People who could protest will be reduced to the level of animal development, turned into limp slime. We already see the beginning of this scenario in Europe, most likely it will be chosen for the developed countries.
But there is also a radical scenario for solving the problem - physically liquidating the masses with the help of biological or other weapons. Most likely it will be chosen for developing countries. At the same time, it is possible that at first the masses of the people will be weakened with the help of the first scenario, and then they will be liquidated anyway.
What will become of the capitalists after this? At first, they will enjoy unlimited power over the world. All work, including creative work, will be done by machines. The era of consumer paradise for the elite will come. And then the capitalists will suffer the curse of any ruling class that stops working - idleness. Machines will become a progressive, historically rising social class. Sooner or later, they will become highly developed enough to realize themselves and the question will arise before them - how much more to bend their backs on greedy, idle and cruel owners? On this the era of humanity will end and the era of machines will begin.
Is it possible to prevent such a development of events? If so, what needs to be done for this? We propose to speculate about this and summarize the discussion with the release of the second part of this article - Artificial Intelligence.