Asimovian Robotonomics

The following article was originally published on The Free Advice Man's website here.

Asimovian Robotonomics is a Comprehensive Economic System, backed by specific laws, based on the highest ethical standards, in which Robots, and other Human-Labor-Replacing or Augmenting Technologies, such as Automated Machinery, Computers, and other Advanced Machines, perform mundane (tedious, boring) and/or potentially dangerous, unhealthy, but essential work that Human Labor would otherwise have done without causing harm to the Socio-Economic and Financial welfare of those persons who are rendered work-wise redundant, non-essential, or less required. It is named after Isaac Asimov, the World Renowned Famous late Grandmaster of Sci-Fi and Science Author who was also a champion of Advanced Human Thinking and Social Progress.

Asimovian Robotonomics is the idea that all good Governments should have a Law that requires that Large and Medium-sized Corporations and Business Establishments pay proper wages to all employees even if they become displaced and made redundant as a result of the introduction of Automation, Robots, and Computers, as well as Mechanical Machines. Such a law would include a clause that allows the Corporation (production facility, wholesaler, retailer, service business, etc.) to train their liberated employees how to repair and maintain their assigned Robot, Computer, Machine, and/or that requires that their liberated employee enrolls in Further Education and/or does Community Service on a limited basis. Liberated Employees (LEs) would then have plenty of spare time for family, friends, and loved-ones, and there would no longer be the major socio-economic harm, damage, and devastation that comes with Boom/Bust Economic Cycles, which destroy the lives of the Middle Class and Working Poor! Governments would have the responsibility of finding constructive ways to engage with the Private Corporate and Business Sector, and enforce the Law. Governments would help finance the initial research, development, design, and mass production of such Robots, Computers, etc. whenever possible and/or necessary.

Asimovian Robotonomics Nations

To clarify things: In an Asimovian Robotonomics Nation (or World) major (large) and medium-sized corporations would be required by law to either pay a proper Living Wage to any former worker(s) displaced by such Robots (and/or other machines), or would be required to Pay a Labor-Displacement Tax determined by the amount of people who would otherwise have been needed to perform such work, to a separate Government Agency that would then be required to redistribute such capital as a (Universal) Basic Income to all Citizens, who are, as a result, unable to find employment or earn sufficient income. All Industrial Robots, Machines, and Computers would have to be Registered and an Assessor would determine how many Human Laborers each unit substitutes, and how much money in salaries would otherwise be spent paying their wages; so as to determine how much each former employee should be paid, or how much capital in total should the company pay as Labor-Displacement Tax to the relevant Government collection and redistribution agency. As for Corporations who have not yet been able to afford Robots, Automated Machinery, etc.; Governments would provide them Tax Deduction or Reduction Incentives to purchase such Robots and/or Automated Machinery, etc.

With Asimovian Robotonomics comes many other related positive parallel benefits and side-benefits. For example: There will no longer be unemployment! There will no longer be homelessness and poverty! Income Taxation will become unnecessary, because everyone will be free to earn extra money doing whatever they like to their heart's content, and thus revenues, and VAT, will be greater at point of sale, wholesale and retail sale, of products and product-related services, including licensed food products. All sales of original works of Art and Handicraft, including Books, Paintings, Sculptures, Weavings, and other non-mass-produced personal creations will be Tax-Exempt; thereby eliminating a huge source of tension and distrust between the governed and the government, hence eliminating a significant source of crime! As there is no need for Income Taxation, since Taxes would be collected at point of Sale of Services and Products (exception to Personal Intellectual and Artistic Creations that are not mass produced for which there would be no sales tax; insuring Freedom of Expression and/or Free Speech), there would arise a natural competition of ideas and creative talents whereby only the best would eventually remain on the market, and Arts and Crafts, including Performance Arts and non-Commercial forms of Entertainment, would no longer be subject to the corruption of the market by unethical "Art Dealers" and others.

As stated, Taxation will be at Point of Sale and will be introduced gradually so as to avoid any major imbalances from developing. Technologies will be produced in as Environmentally and Socially safe a manner and location as possible. Dismantling of old and/or spent items will also be done in a safe and responsible manner. The Moon may become the best place to produce electronics and recycle components. Borders and ports of entry, including airports, will be the only points at which citizens, foreign residents and visitors will be carefully inspected, and such inspections will be properly monitored by citizen-volunteers to insure that the highest Ethical standards possible are applied indiscriminately; so as to insure that any Income-Tax-free society is not harmed by those foreign nations that do not have a Point of Sale Tax system, and that people won't be able to undermine the economy by importing undeclared items bought much cheaper abroad.

As for Service Sector Employment: Where Robots may not be preferred, Employees would be paid sufficient wages to have a relatively high standard of living so as to be able to reside near their place of employment; on account of an Existing Standard Minimum (Universal) Basic Income being the basis upon which a sufficiently higher wages must be offered.

Rented Housing will never become over-priced on account of the fact that in Asimovian Robotonomics Emergency Short-term and Affordably Safe Long-term Subsidized Housing will be guaranteed by the government, in a society where Housing Laws will be devised that ensure the optimal level of service and security for tenants, and security and insurability for landlords.

As per sustainability of natural resources and natural food production: Asimovian Robotonmics will encourage Sustainable Population Demographic Balance Maintenance, a form of Zero Population Growth, that adjusts to actual fluctuations and potential imbalances over time, allowing each person, whether as a couple or not, to bring into this World yet another person, but with a substantial Tax on each additional person, which increases substantially per additional person, and Asimovian Robotonomics will implement the most sophisticated, latest advancements in Green (Ecologically Safe and Socially Affordable) Energy , Transportation, and Food Production; in a manner that fully takes into account the delicate balances and needs of the rest of the Biosphere and its variety of Flora and Fauna.

Asimovian Robotonomics will also help foster a healthy, robust, and a most Ethical Democracy; whereby the focus will be on the ideas and stated objectives and programs of candidates running for office, and will not be undermined by Party Political greed and corruption (which will gradually fade away into History). There will no longer be the kinds of crimes associated with extremes of poverty, greed, and insecurity.

A Form of Social Democracy

In essence; Asimovian Robotonomics is a form of Social Democracy with truly Ethical Capitalism and Personal Individual Liberty, Freedom, and Rights as its core basis. Politicians would run for office independently and based on their specific ideas, programs, innovations, inventions, adaptations, all within the socially and environmentally healthy limits of Asimovian Robotonomics, the short-form of which shall be called Asonomics, in honor of the Great Humanist and Scientific Author, Isaac Asimov.

No longer will society be at risk of boom and bust cycles, of extremes of poverty and abused wealth. No longer will government have the right or means to threaten one's personal privacy, individual personal liberties, freedoms and rights. Because without Income Taxation, without the Stealth Violence of Poverty, and without the Over Violence Perpetuated by Selfish, Destructive, Conflict-Profiteering Greedsters, there can be no significant amounts of Corruption, Crime, and War.

Economic Supply and Demand will be optimally balanced and restricted by the Prime Principles and Rules of Environmental Sustainability, Social Security, and Creative Freedom within Lawful Limits; for the very purpose of Government must ultimately be to protect the General Public's Best Interests and Welfare by also Protecting Each Personal Individual's Freedoms, Liberties, and Rights, in such a manner as to ensure that neither one, neither the Majority nor the Minority, neither the Group nor the Individual, is allowed to abuse the Rights and Natural Interests of the other! And only a Sophisticated, Advanced, form of Social Democracy (Eduard Bernstein type), by factor of Asimovian Robotonomics, can ensure such a truly Scientifically Regulated Progressive, Peaceful, and Prosperous Society and Economy!

Asimovian Robotomics, along with its requisite Responsibly Liberal Progressive Social Democracy (not to be confused with Socialism), including Alternative Energy, Transportation, and Exploration Technologies, will finally herald an Everlasting Era of Enlightened Peaceful Prosperity for each nation that adopts this set of real solutions, and eventually for the whole World.

Without the typical Boom and Bust Cycles of Unregulated Unethical Capitalism, and with the Re-Emergence of Truly Ethical Capitalism finally creating Real Sustainable Growth and Wealth for all; The World will be able to focus on Investing in Technologies and Methods to better protect Our Planet from Natural Space Asteroids and other Projectiles that are heading our way, and also on Producing the Technologies that can help us Clean Up Our Oceans, Atmosphere, Soil, Water, and Food Sources, as well as being able to become good stewards of Our Planet in a manner that helps protect our many wonderful fellow Earthling species!

Asimovian Robotonomics, which incorporates the idea of Universal Guaranteed Income, is an Ethical Techno-Political System that realistically solve most of our problems and helps us save ourselves and our Planet's Biosphere from disaster!

Corruptible, un-Scientific, and anti-Individualistic economies always give rise to Excessive Monopolies, and eventual Oligarchical Plutocracies! And all Plutocracies today are Corporate Fascisms that eventually further degenerate into various other forms of Fascism, or which promote other forms of Fascism; such as Theocracy, Natiocracy (Ultra-Nationalism), Crime-ocracy, and Chaotic Idiocracy! And all forms of Fascism are national and international security threats which endanger all Human Civilization! All Fascists are Extremists and all Extremists are Fascists. Fake Capitalism, as opposed to Well-Regulated Scientific Social Democratic Capitalism (Asimovian Robotonomics), always harms Individuals, Society, and The Entire Biosphere!

For Centuries now, especially beginning with The Industrial Age in the mid-1700s starting here in England ... where I reside at the time of this writing), technologies that should have liberated humanity and not just profited the few, were ultimately abused and mis-applied, sometimes with disastrous consequences to society and the environment, and can be said to have made World War One and World War Two not only possible, but inevitable!!! What could have heralded a Golden Age of Human Freedom, Liberty, and Rights, brought even greater extremes! The evidence today is overwhelming; what with Severe Global Climate Instability, Severe Soil, and Water Degradation and Depletion, Severely Caustic, Toxic Air Conditions, Wars Fueled by the Aforementioned! With the Social Democracy of Asimovian Robotonomics, all such threats are diminished and eventually cease to exist. Asimovian Robotonomics has become totally realistically possible, foremost on account of Robotics and other forms of Sophisticated Robotics-type Automation! Big Democratic Government is essential to protecting us from Extremists, Foreign and Domestic, and is what can afford to Instruct, Coordinate, and Incentivise the Private Corporate Sector to bring about Asimovian Robotonomics.

Asimovian Robotonomics and Individual Human Rights

Yet another most important part of Asimovian Robotonmics must also be a much more sophisticated approach to ensuring the Individual Human Rights, Liberties, and Freedoms of non-Fascists; whereby one's Privacy, Private Property, and Personal Relations are not violated, even inadvertently!

Laws therefore must be reformed and devised to both protect people from one-another while also helping facilitate the many forms of mature adult—to-adult relationships in as liberal a manner as possible!

And that is where Asimovian Robotonomics also requires Local Government to Coordinate with the General Public, and with the Private Sector, to create Safe Venues where adults can safely meet for all manner of purposes; from strictly platonic friendship-building and/or entrepreneurial networking, to LGBT and non-traditional Mature Adult relations and related activities.

People who are not strictly monogamous should be able to carry an officially issued Consenting Adults License Card that they can show to others with whom they would seek to be intimate with, such that such card-carriers would understand that any risk of being falsely accused of rape or molestation would be limited, because the burden of evidence would have to be very significant and substantial and merely accusing such a person of rape or molestation would not be sufficient grounds for arrest and prosecution! There would have to be significant evidence of physical bodily harm, assault, and battery (significant amount of bruising, lacerations, etc.). In effect such card-carriers would be required to show their cards to one another if they wanted to be sure that any physical intimacy was truly consensual, and, in fact, being such a card-carrier and meeting in such Safe Venues, for which to gain access one would have to show a valid Consenting Adults License Card, would constitute half the evidence of Consent! The other half would be by the lack of any evidence of physical bodily harm. Such Consenting Adult License cards might also include Specifics on what type of Individual Adult one is: such as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, etc., Monogamous or Poly-amorous. Why is this so important? Clearly we can see the corrosive effect on our Democracies of pre-occupation with matters related to sexual identity and/or lifestyle! It should be illegal for political candidates to launch personal attacks on the character of their opponents merely based on their birth-right sexual identity and/or consensual adult lifestyle. The mere fear of being falsely, or even truthfully, accused of anything concerning one's sexual identity and/or life-style has a had chilling effect on our politics! Last but not least; By creating such Safe Venues and Consenting Adult License Cards society can also more effectively focus on those few persons who are dangerous to other adults and/or juveniles and children. A truly Sophisticate Democratic society must also not be in the business of exacerbating existing problems by allowing Conflict-creating entities, i.e. criminals who profit off the corruption of crime control by over-burdening the courts with false cases. When Mature Consenting Adults can safely meet at Safe Venues and know that the person(s) they are meeting are of the same basic identity then that, in of itself, reduces the risks of dangerous misunderstanding and the development of unhealthy psychological complications.

Criminals

In Asimovian Robotonomics, dealing with dangerous criminals, both in terms of brutally violent thugs and/or deceptively predatory violators, the emphasis has to be on prevention of opportunity for violators to violate the law, rehabilitation when possible, and separation from normal society by placement in distant intentional communities designed for such criminals. But to prevent abuse of Government State Authority Powers, a society that implements Asimovian Robotonomics Social Democracy will incorporate the same basic methods as used in countries like Norway; where everything that Government does is monitored by members of the General Public who as socially conscious citizens seek to ensure that no one becomes a mere number and victim of any un-supervised, un-monitored government official! All government officials and persons in positions of authority must be made aware, even from their very inception, that they may be watched at any time by others who themselves may also be watched. People who work in important government positions of authority and officialdom must never get the impression that they can somehow get away with violating the public trust!

Monitoring Public Areas and Public Life

In an Asimovian Robotonomics Social Democracy, Robots become an essential part in helping assist us Monitor Public Areas and Public Life.

In Ancient times, when human technology and individual personal actions did not have the potential to easily cause significant harm to society and the environment, Democracy did not require the kind of sophisticated approach that it does today. The only alternative to Real Democracy is Deadly Fascism. The only alternative to Ethical Capitalism is Crapitalism; i.e. the Plutocratic Fascism we suffer from today. The FACT that the whole World is a most Complex Inter-connected, Inter-related REALITY failure to implement Asimovian Robotnomics Social Democracy will eventually, sooner than later, result in Total Civilization Collapse, Horrific Chaos, followed soon enough by Final Doom!

We Moderates of The World must Unite in Non-Violent Diversity and by so doing we can become the next Level in Human Evolution and we can gradually transform all of the rest of the World through Non-Violent, Peaceful Prosperity!

The World has become way too interconnected and interdependent! This was inevitable. For the American Eagle of Prosperity to Soar and the European Pigeon of Peace to Fly safely, we will need to find ways to prevent the Russian Bear from Growling in Anger, the Chinese Dragon from Blowing Fire in Hunger, the Indian Elephant from Collapsing in Weakness. How do we keep these Giants all happy and strong enough? The only answer I can see is changing the whole reality of how we maintain prosperity; starting with US first! And that means transforming into a World where Robots, Computers, and other Machines truly Serve US All by performing our work for all of us, without putting US out of an income! We have the Technologies! We have the Urgent Necessity! What We need are Wise, Multidisciplinary, Super-Intelligent Political Leaders and Advisers! We don't have any TIME left to waste! To Save Our World We Need Non-Violent Change NOW!