Economy of obsoletism

I often hear that most jobs will be replaced by robots or mechanical functions someday, and my first thought was that might be a lot more money and effort than continuing to employ people. It would be expensive to create, install, and maintain all that machinery. Mike said the initial cost would be high but that it wouldn't expensive in the long run. That might be true. In that case, the majority of human jobs would be based on building and installing the technology, until machines can do that too. Once that happens, I wonder if there would be a financial meltdown or if the need for humans to have jobs would be obsolete--in the same way we see outdated technology as obsolete? And if that's the case, would we reconfigure our entire foundation of economics? Would there even be a purpose for money anymore?

Distrust of finite objects

For a while, I've had a theory that people tend to be suspicious of something that holds a lot of information if they can't see the entirety of where that information is stored. It's why I prefer physical books to eBooks or Kindle; I like to see all the pages together. It also seems to be why Arthur Weasley told Ginny in the second Harry Potter book, "Don't trust something that thinks if you can't see where it keeps its brain."

This may also extend, partly, to why so many humans are distrustful of one another. Among other reasons, it may be because we know that people have whole worlds of thoughts contained within a finite body part, and we can't see the thoughts from the outside.

I draw from time to time.

I'm calling this one "Where It Grows."

The tiny purple girl looks like she has dreadlocks, but they're meant to be plastic tubes instead of hair.

The ashtray sunflower is an image I've drawn many times over the years. This time I tried to make it look industrial. Juxtapositions between nature and technology have always interested me, and music is an important part of that. So much of it is formed with machines, but there is nothing more natural than rhythms. They're written by math, the omnipotent and impartial master whose formulas govern everything organic. We create things to imitate nature and sometimes damage it in the process. To draw is to recreate and remix, like visual DJing. Anything I make is inspired by what already exists, so I have nothing but gratitude for everything that allows itself to be depicted.

While it's expected that we'll harness and mirror resources, depletion is never the healthy option. Sometimes it becomes a power struggle which humans will inevitably lose. We'll never encase the sun in a lantern.

Changing communication

It's often said that the internet has changed the way we communicate. It's true, but there's more to it than that. The online world has changed how we learn and how we educate others. Obviously it's made information a lot more widely accessible—although not all the content can be trusted. Pre-internet, it took more effort to find articles and studies. You'd have to take classes, go to the library, and do other things that would require leaving your home and sometimes spending money. That was a barrier for some who might have otherwise been able or willing to learn. Still, I wonder if the easy access we now have can become a deterrent as well. We know that this wealth of knowledge is only a search and click away, so we let the bookmarks pile up with the assurance that we'll read everything later because we can.

It changes the way we relay knowledge, too. If we want to prove a point or pass along a story, we share links. There's no requirement to first digest it ourselves and then explain it in our own words. We don't have to memorize facts; they're available to go back and reference. This can make it more challenging to talk to people face to face without the internet at hand, because it's frustrating to want to show them exactly what you're talking about but not have the source available.