Western thinkers are convinced that globalization will bring equality and freedom to humanity. This, they say, is its main goal. But in fact, everything is exactly the opposite.
Futurologists predict that society will split into castes in the future. And it won't end well.
Robots are coming
A person himself does not know who he is, but he perfectly feels his needs. Food, power, sex are the main engines of civilization. To satisfy these needs, if you think about it, a person goes to work and receives a salary. Now, everything is moving towards the fact that in the next 20 years most people will lose their jobs, and with it many will lose their incentives for life.
Yuval Noah Harari, a historian from Israel, author of the world bestsellers "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humanity" and "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow", also speaks about this. Harari reminds readers that people have always been unequal. Private property has exacerbated this inequality. However, later the states began to take care of the "ordinary people". True, with selfish goals: the rulers needed armies of healthy soldiers, and the industrial economies needed mass labor and employment. Therefore, states invested money in their health care, education and social support systems.
However, now the post-industrial era is in the yard. Robots and drones have appeared in service with all armies, which are controlled by small groups of professional military personnel, and smart machines are working on factory conveyors. The question is: what should the authorities and the powerful of this world henceforth do with the masses?
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Who needs you?
“Throughout history, the understanding of work has changed many times,” says Yuval Noah Harari. - For quite a long period, people did not work at all, they survived, that is, the very idea: I get up and go to work by 8.00, where I am until 17.00 - this is a modern concept. Job anxiety is also a relatively new phenomenon. During the industrial revolutions of recent centuries, people constantly felt the fear that machines would prevail, and that he himself would become unnecessary. I think this time it might be true."
The massive loss of jobs will lead to the formation of a useless class in society by mid-century. They call him that already. It will include not only the unemployed, but also all those who, in principle, will not be able to get an affordable job.
“In the XXI century. inequality in society will reach a historical maximum,”the historian writes. This inequality will be not only social, but also biological.
Renew my brain
Biology is undergoing revolutionary changes. A lot of money is being thrown into neuroscience. Biohacking gurus appear - methods to improve the capabilities of the human body and mind.
Bioengineers now know how to grow new organs and renew old ones, to interfere with the body at the genetic level, etc. There are also more radical approaches, in fact, they involve the fusion of a human and a computer. Nanorobots can be launched into the circulatory system so that they can clean blood vessels and deliver drugs where necessary, and at the same time destroy tumors and viruses. In the United States, a chip has been created that, when implanted into the brain, sends signals from one healthy cell to another, while bypassing the damaged areas. There is a brain implant that sends nerve impulses to a personal computer, which, in turn, gives commands to all kinds of electronic devices in the house.
What does it take to become one of the lucky ones? The answer is obvious: money, and a lot. That is, a small group, the world elite, will be able to "pump" the body and brain, and the masses of ordinary people will be deprived of this. “As a result, humanity will split into biological castes - superhumans and a useless class,” predicts Harari. - By 2100, the rich can indeed become more talented and smarter than the poor. Once this gap arises, nothing can be changed. This will be the greatest revolution in the history of not just humanity, but all life on Earth. If this issue is not addressed, a tiny group of people will gain access to technology and determine the future of life on Earth."
Harari tries to comfort us. Perhaps, he suggests, some countries where humanistic ideals are rooted will continue to support the populace. Let's say, they will pay each member of the useless class the so-called unconditional basic income (UBI) - a certain amount of money that will make it possible to make ends meet. There are other ideas as well. According to the Israeli historian, many people in the future will choose to live in virtual reality. For example, play computer games. By the way, Bill Gates adheres to the same opinion.
If you look at some statistics, these predictions do not look fantastic. According to American economists, the amount of free time among low-skilled workers has increased by 4 hours a week over the past 15 years, and 3 of these 4 hours they spend on video games.
Yuval Noah Harari believes that by 2050, people will be exploring new game scenarios and spending all their free time in virtual universes. It is possible that the video game player will become an official profession. Another in-demand specialty will be the designer of virtual worlds.
One way or another, two castes of people - the elite and the useless class - will somehow have to coexist on the same planet. And there is a suspicion that the neighborhood of an ordinary homo sapiens with a "pumped" cyborg will not end with anything good for the first of them.