The city houses a million people but the streets are devoid of living things. Automated vehicles run the roads and in the few places there are pavements, no one uses them. Why would they? Anything you could ever need can be delivered. Almost anything can be done from home. Work. Dating. Parties. Weddings. Funerals. All done from the comfort of the couch in virtual reality.
In truth, no one can really afford to go out. When you spend twelve hours a day working and eight of it sleeping, a commute just doesn’t fit in there. For jobs that require a physical presence, well, there are sleeves for that. Machines built in our likeness, piloted by workers from home.
All of this automation is very efficient for the economy. But now there are a lot of people wondering what the economy is for, exactly. When the end result of a rich society is living in isolation, you have to question, who does this all serve? The answer, most definitely, is not you.
Paddy Dobson
7th November 2022