By Selwyn Duke

A quarter-century ago, Sun Microsystems cofounder Bill Joy wrote the jarring essay, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.” He warned that new technologies threatened to make humans obsolete (if not endangered). Now that future is nigh.

Just recently, billionaire and visionary Elon Musk predicted that within 20 years, most people won’t have to work at all. Artificial intelligence and robotics will “free” man from that, is the idea. Instead of people hustling for money, Musk “envisions a world where income is guaranteed, labor is optional, and human effort looks more like a hobby than an obligation,” as The Daily Overview put it last week.

For good or for ill, too, the robot-army revolution is coming. And the Trump administration not only isn’t oblivious to this, but is on the case. As the WinePress Substack page informs:

After investing trillions of dollars into an AI revolution in the United States, the Trump administration is now beginning to pivot its attention to automated labor and humanoid robots, further pressuring the struggling jobs market in the U.S.

First reported by Politico, the administration is apparently “all-in” on robotics and is preparing a more formal plan to be released soon. Purportedly, the plans are the latest plan to be competitive with China. But beyond that, the plan is to use these robots, particularly humanoid ones, to bolster the country’s workforce.

When, Not “If”

This AI-robotics revolution will be a civilizational sea change. It’s akin to the printing press’ invention, Scientific Revolution, or Industrial Revolution; only, it could be even more profound.

Much as with nuclear weapons, too, it’s inescapable. This technology will be brought to fruition. It’s just a matter of what nation(s) will lead the world in doing so. And just as we had to develop atomic capability before Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japanese (and the Soviets) did, we cannot afford to fall behind despotic China in AI/robotics.

As to efforts to ensure this doesn’t happen, Politico reported Wednesday:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been meeting with robotics industry CEOs and is “all in” on accelerating the industry’s development, according to three people familiar with the discussions who were granted anonymity to share details. The administration is considering issuing an executive order on robotics next year, according to two of the people.

A Department of Commerce spokesperson said: “We are committed to robotics and advanced manufacturing because they are central to bringing critical production back to the United States.”

…There’s growing interest on Capitol Hill as well. A Republican amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would have created a national robotics commission. The amendment was not included in the bill. Other legislative efforts are underway.

The flurry of activity suggests robotics is emerging as the next major front in America’s race against China. It’s the latest example of how the Trump administration is embracing industrial policy in a bid to compete against Beijing in critical sectors such as AI.

One Aim Nixing Another

Politico, however, then tells us something else, too. Promoting robotics’ proliferation, the site writes, “also threatens to undermine one of Trump’s chief goals: reviving the U.S. manufacturing workforce.”

Like it or not, though, this outcome appears inevitable. This is just as how the automobile’s ascendancy ended the horse-carriage and buggy-whip industries, just as how refrigeration’s rise ended the natural ice trade. And here’s the reality, to sum up some other key points Politico makes:

• Humanoid robots are transitioning from science fiction to reality.
• China currently dominates industrial robotics, with 1.8 million robots in factories, approximately four times the U.S.’ 2023 number.
• U.S. investment is rising, expected to reach $2.3 billion this year, twice the 2024 figure. A $38 billion global humanoid market is expected by 2035.
• Tech industry leaders argue that robotics is the “physical embodiment of AI” and is critical for manufacturing, tech leadership, national security, defense, and public safety.

Another upside is that robot labor will be as cheap in the U.S. as in the Third World. This will eliminate the incentive to ship factories overseas. This offers wealth-creation benefits such as massive property-tax revenue. Moreover, if American companies control our AI/robotics industry, other taxes, profits, IP royalties, and stock gains will accrue domestically.

It can have a social/demographic effect, too. After all, it eliminates the “We need workers” argument, which is a main justification for immigration.

Human Obsolescence?

Other implications, however, are even more staggering because this tech revolution is like no other. Previously, the supplanting industries (e.g., auto production) would provide as many or more jobs than the ones they drove extinct. Of course, there were individuals who didn’t compensate well and suffered income loss. Yet in the aggregate, man’s intelligence and adaptability carried the day.

What happens, though, when this new industry, AI/robotics, creates entities (advanced androids) infinitely more intelligent and adaptable than us humans? Add to this that robots don’t need sleep, take bathroom breaks, call in sick, get distracted, take vacations, or slack off.

Industry leaders claim that new high-skill jobs can be created in building, deploying, and maintaining the robots. But what about when the automatons can do this better than we can? (This would eventually become the case.)

Will we as a society decide to, via law, reserve that role for humans as a kind of charitable endeavor? (This could be sort of as when letting a child carry an insignificant piece of luggage so he feels useful.)

And how many jobs would this be, anyway?

So how would most people survive? Will we institute a universal basic income (UBI), an idea already popular in some circles? How would this be effected, constitutionally (state-level) or otherwise? (I’ll give you three guesses.)

Darker Implications

Then, what of the social implications? If work is obviated, how will most people occupy themselves? Would we become like the Eloi in the 1895 science fiction novella The Time Machine, ignorant, docile, and pusillanimous? Actually, that could be optimistic. For with “An idle mind being the Devil’s workshop,” just imagine the depravity an increasingly hedonistic world could descend into.

Moreover, the wealth creators would be just a handful of high-tech industrialists (and their machines). Would they have incentive to keep “the masses” around once the latter no longer “serve a material purpose”?

Remember here that many among us are already quite misanthropic. Such people believe most humans are, as they may call them, “useless eaters” or a “pox upon the planet.” Note, too, that a godless West must, as atheists logically would, regard man himself as just a robot — an organic one comprising chemicals and water. We already see this philosophy manifest itself in an instinctive assessing of others in only their economic dimension. For example, when discussing immigrants’ “value,” people will sometimes never wonder if their religion/ideology is compatible with Americanism. Instead, they may only ask, “What jobs can these immigrants perform? What skills do they bring to the table.”

In essence and as I’ve often pointed out, we’re already treating people like robots.

So, question: What will happen when the economic value of the artificial robots is great and that of the organic ones is zero? Who’s heading for the scrap heap?

Of course, this is, as already expressed, an especially worrisome problem in a secularist, materialistic world. And, really, the spiritual/moral is what it comes down to. For if we’re perceived as soulless, we’ll be treated as soulless.

So maybe the aforementioned Bill Joy’s concerns should be encapsulated thus: “Why a Godless Future Doesn’t Need Us.”

This article was originally published at The New American.