Retail will not die for a long time. You will find it difficult to email
fried chicken, for example. Until there is no more need for transportation
for people to go places, there will still be stores to cater to them. It's
lots more fun to shop in person, anyway. For retail to die out, we must
postulater a worls where no one leaves their homes..
>If people are unemployed through increasing automation, how will they support
>themselves?
If automation reaches the ultimate level of 'replicators' there will be no
reason to support oneself. You can go back to the 'hunter/gatherer' level
of life, since there will be anything you want available for the taking.
This excludes land, unless we get cheap space transport. Land will be the
only thing in short supply.
Yes, I am postulating a 'free' energy source, and I am also not projecting
beyond the next 100 years.
>
>For example, if the millions of people being automated out of the retail
sector do
>find other jobs, what what might those jobs be? Assuming there is a
market for
>them, can you say in all honesty that they *all* have the aptitude to be
>scientists, artists, designers, or engineers? If not, then what will they
do to
>support themselves?
>
With universal automation, the point is that there will be no need for most
of today's jobs. If you can get anything you want for free, why do you need
to make a living?
I think the bigger problem will be keeping the masses of displaced people
content with their lives..
Many will spend their entire lives in VR, living their dreams. No different
than losing oneself in a novel today, except in the future we will be able
to do it forever, if desired.
The transition form today's society to the future is a problem that must be
addressed. I am still puzzling on that..
Chuck Kuecker