A Chinese factory replaced 90% of their human workers with robots and production rose by 250% … while defects dropped by 80%.
Fascinating or terrifying?
The world is changing.
Some say change is the only constant … Others remind of death and taxes.
In this video, Bill Gates says we should tax robots.
Are we about to treat robots as "electronic persons"? It isn't unprecedented … we already treat certain business structures like people in tax and legal matters.
But, where does it stop?
If you tax robots … what's the difference between a robot, an algorithm, a cotton gin, or printing press?
Taxing increased productivity could have happened at any time.
Are we ready to change the face of capitalism and society?
At the extreme, it raises a question, if production and efficiency can be raised without as many humans working, what will humans do?
This quickly leads to some far-fetched (but thought-provoking) ideas and conversations. For example, recently Elon Musk (and this presidential candidate) proposed a Universal Basic Income. The basic premise of this is that by giving people the minimum income necessary to survive, you free them up to do what they're passionate about.
Clever … or crazy?
We live in exciting times.