RE: Dueling Drills: World Powers Are Prepping For SOMETHING
Well, I guess the crux of the matter then is how advanced their technology really is. I don't think that the level of automation that you can see at Amazon or in China is indicative of what they have. After all, even back in the 60s the SRI had already developed fully automated robots capable of computer vision and autonomous movement (e.g. Shakey). But that's speculation on my part, it's hard to guess at what level their technology really is.
You're wrong about nukes having an adverse effect on the labor market. Historically, after big wars and catastrophes, there has always been a period of intense economic growth. In Germany, after WWII, there was the Wirtschaftswunder (lit. economic miracle). In Italy, the Boom Economico (lit. economic boom). And Japan, which was nuked twice at the end of WWII, quickly become one of the richest nations on the planet, up until the Lost Decade in the 90s.
You're right: money is not wealth. But my point still stands: what wealth do you possess that the multi-trillionaire banking families crave so much? Your plasma TV? Your Nintendo Switch? Your car? Your home? Your collection of vintage vinyls from the 70s?
No matter how you look at it, there is simply nothing of value that me, you or 99% human beings can provide to them. Sure, maybe they still need a few hundred thousands of us because maybe they still haven't fully automated everything, but for how long is that going to be true?
There are actually many different valuable goods and services that aren't otherwise potential to them. They need our labor, our political power, our DNA, and much more, upon which their quality of life depends. While machine vision is a great leap towards automation, it does not enable robots to actually use what they see to do the work we do with what we see.
It's easy to grasp how much technological progress has been made, but that progress is so short of actual human capabilities it's far - very far - from making us redundant. We are extremely complex and much more capable relative to robots today, and for the foreseeable future. A machine may be able to do a particular task better than me. But they can't do all the tasks I can do - at all. A drone can't tie a shoe. It can't pick an apple. All it can do is fly, and maybe take pics or shoot. They may not have any use for my fridge, but if they want a fridge, they need someone to design it, make it, deliver it, maintain it, fill it, and so on and so forth, until it needs to be hauled away and replaced.
Robots aren't going to be closing that loop soon, if ever. By the time automation has reached most of those tasks, folks like you and I are also going to have it. Money is not wealth, refrigerators full of food are. Aquaponics, 3D printers, so forth, are available to you and I today, not just fat cats that own factories. Technological advances are in our favor, not theirs.
What willl give monetarily rich people power when we don't need money to have wealth?
This is the real change that is coming. We're not going to be wiped out by the parasites that depend on us for their sustenance. We're going to ignore them until they can do their own work, or just go away. Decentralization is not their power, it's ours. Technology always increases the power of individuals more than institutions, and the more advanced the tech, the more power individuals gain, and the faster they gain it.
The key to keeping their power is our consent, and this is why the enemedia so carefully craft the narratives we are fed: to make us believe we need to.
We don't. Sooner than they can live without us, we'll be living without them. The good old days are yet to come. One description of wealth is being of independent means. We're becoming independent of them far faster than they are of us. While digits in accounts show money is being concentrated faster than ever in the accounts of the rich, actual wealth is being more widely distributed than ever in history.
The real question is how long until we gain the power to travel offworld. Once we're interplanetary, there will never be any means of oppression that can follow us across the universe. Our sons will inherit the stars, and only the good company they choose to keep will be part of their lives. Real freedom is coming, and the joy and prosperity we want to give our posterity comes with it.