In today’s age, we have two problems. Maybe more. But basically two.
The first:
We need to understand the difference between a Puzzle and a Mystery. A Puzzle is when you put the 1000 pieces together and there is a missing piece. You know exactly what is missing. A Mystery is where you have all the information, but you don’t know where to look. This is where we are today, and hence why Computer Scientists are now called Data Scientists. We have everything at our fingertips. A device you carry in your hand has all the information that has ever been invented on it; it can take you places; phone anyone in the world; look at colour maps and drawings of anything. And for free! Or it seems free until you are looking for the needle in the haystack. And when you want to find that needle fast, you need to find the person who can find it for or with you and wouldn’t you say that they should be compensated for that gift that they bring you?
Note that I use the word “Compensation” not “payment”. Compensation allows for my learning. It allows for my Opportunity Cost. It allows me to be compensated for the 20,000 hours I have and the R10 million that has been invested in my education (by me and the people with whom I have worked).
The second:
Wage slavery. Anyone who works for someone for an hourly or monthly or yearly rate, is a wage slave. Effectively the person paying is receiving a higher value than the person being paid. So even when a top person in South Africa was spectacularly given a R500 million bonus one year (about US$33 million), the business pages went crazy. The owner of this multinational was interviewed, and he said, well this guy made me R8 billion and I thought I could give him some of it.
So now we go from two problems to one problem (enclosure):
Our central problem in all the Industrial Revolutions is that we have slowly and seemingly irrevocably allowed our freedoms to be “enclosed”, becoming wage slaves. And my main problem today, is that even with 30 years of experience, I seem expensive, compared with my 25 year old peers who seem cheap. Yes, their hourly rate is 1/3rd of mine. But what if in three hours I can do something that they take three weeks to do? What is more expensive? Obviously we need knowledge transfer, and if you read Working To Make Ourselves Redundant then you will see that I do this in everything I do.
And so what we need to do is make a decision: will we use our freedom we have attained to really be free, or will be become slaves, like the ancients?
In the Third Industrial Revolution, blue collar workers jobs were automated, and we solved this problem by white collar workers paying high taxes so that blue collar workers could be on the dole, or so that they could get free education, free medicine, cheap electricity, transport, water, etc. But in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, white collar workers (including Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Call Centre People, Drivers, Taxi Operators, Librarians, Warehouse People, Helicopter Pilots (drones are used in movies where helicopters were used before; and drones are used for inspecting power lines), even Computer Programmers) jobs are being automated. By machines. And who owns the machines? Bill Gates; Jeff Bezos; Warren Buffett; Jack Ma; Apple; Tesla; etc. Will they be benevolent when they own everything? History shows us that Pharoah (the king of Egypt) changed. The Torah says that “A new king arose over Egypt”, but there is Midrash (commentary) which says that the new king was the same person as the old king.
Let’s say there is a dreamer who comes to the attention of the king and this dreamer (Joseph in Egypt, David now!) says “hey: you’re going to have seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine”. The king has nothing to lose. He says: “ok, you become my second in command”. You put in place systems for us to survive the drought. And the king thinks “to save face, if we don’t have the drought, well I’ll just chop off this guy’s head!”
Anyway the plenty happens, then the drought & associated famine.
Then the people come to the king, with all his Granaries, and ask for a handout, and the king says “what can you give me”, so the people give him money, then next time they come for a hand out they give him jewelry, then the family jewels and the things grandma left and a couple of months later, they come back and the king asks how they will pay and they give the king their house, and then their land, and then eventually they give the king their souls.
Now the king owns the people. They are the king’s slaves. And the king changes from benevolent to the opposite, a dictator, not a benevolent dictator.
Do we want this to happen in a world which has been free since 1945, to where we are all receiving the dole? Handed out by automatons that do all the work, and where they pay all the taxes? Or where the people who own everything pay us, because humans are still so much more powerful than robots?
Or do we want a different answer? In 1999, I invented this answer. Then I heard about the Fourth Industrial Revolution and I knew the world needed this answer. Is anyone listening? I don’t know. Let’s see.
(c) David Lipschitz, 2019. Feel free to use this information, as long as you reference me. Without Prejudice. I’m not saying that Jeff or Jack or Bill or Warren or Apple or Tesla will do these things. I’m just pointing out that these are the current kings (kingpins) in 2019, and let’s understand where we are going and where we have the potential to go - up and down.
PS: My big dream? I want to meet our Galactic Neighbours, not by physically travelling to them, but by using my mind to “see” them. In order to do this I need free food, free water, free electricity. I need a healthy mind in a healthy body. I need accommodation, and I need clothing. And this is possible in a Fourth Industrial Revolution world where my mind can be liberated from the mundane business of making enough money to live each day. But not if I become a slave, and my mind becomes enslaved, as has happened so many times in the past, when a benevolent king became a malicious, narcissistic, king.
PPS: A recent article: 26 own the same as 3.8 billion
The first:
We need to understand the difference between a Puzzle and a Mystery. A Puzzle is when you put the 1000 pieces together and there is a missing piece. You know exactly what is missing. A Mystery is where you have all the information, but you don’t know where to look. This is where we are today, and hence why Computer Scientists are now called Data Scientists. We have everything at our fingertips. A device you carry in your hand has all the information that has ever been invented on it; it can take you places; phone anyone in the world; look at colour maps and drawings of anything. And for free! Or it seems free until you are looking for the needle in the haystack. And when you want to find that needle fast, you need to find the person who can find it for or with you and wouldn’t you say that they should be compensated for that gift that they bring you?
Note that I use the word “Compensation” not “payment”. Compensation allows for my learning. It allows for my Opportunity Cost. It allows me to be compensated for the 20,000 hours I have and the R10 million that has been invested in my education (by me and the people with whom I have worked).
The second:
Wage slavery. Anyone who works for someone for an hourly or monthly or yearly rate, is a wage slave. Effectively the person paying is receiving a higher value than the person being paid. So even when a top person in South Africa was spectacularly given a R500 million bonus one year (about US$33 million), the business pages went crazy. The owner of this multinational was interviewed, and he said, well this guy made me R8 billion and I thought I could give him some of it.
So now we go from two problems to one problem (enclosure):
Our central problem in all the Industrial Revolutions is that we have slowly and seemingly irrevocably allowed our freedoms to be “enclosed”, becoming wage slaves. And my main problem today, is that even with 30 years of experience, I seem expensive, compared with my 25 year old peers who seem cheap. Yes, their hourly rate is 1/3rd of mine. But what if in three hours I can do something that they take three weeks to do? What is more expensive? Obviously we need knowledge transfer, and if you read Working To Make Ourselves Redundant then you will see that I do this in everything I do.
And so what we need to do is make a decision: will we use our freedom we have attained to really be free, or will be become slaves, like the ancients?
In the Third Industrial Revolution, blue collar workers jobs were automated, and we solved this problem by white collar workers paying high taxes so that blue collar workers could be on the dole, or so that they could get free education, free medicine, cheap electricity, transport, water, etc. But in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, white collar workers (including Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Call Centre People, Drivers, Taxi Operators, Librarians, Warehouse People, Helicopter Pilots (drones are used in movies where helicopters were used before; and drones are used for inspecting power lines), even Computer Programmers) jobs are being automated. By machines. And who owns the machines? Bill Gates; Jeff Bezos; Warren Buffett; Jack Ma; Apple; Tesla; etc. Will they be benevolent when they own everything? History shows us that Pharoah (the king of Egypt) changed. The Torah says that “A new king arose over Egypt”, but there is Midrash (commentary) which says that the new king was the same person as the old king.
How is this possible? The first king was benevolent, kind, generous. The second king was horrible, had a “hardened heart” and allowed his people to go through all kinds of hardships (plagues) until this king let the people go (to be free), but then even at this late stage the king chased the leaving people, until the king’s army drowned in old ideas.
Let’s say there is a dreamer who comes to the attention of the king and this dreamer (Joseph in Egypt, David now!) says “hey: you’re going to have seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine”. The king has nothing to lose. He says: “ok, you become my second in command”. You put in place systems for us to survive the drought. And the king thinks “to save face, if we don’t have the drought, well I’ll just chop off this guy’s head!”
Anyway the plenty happens, then the drought & associated famine.
Then the people come to the king, with all his Granaries, and ask for a handout, and the king says “what can you give me”, so the people give him money, then next time they come for a hand out they give him jewelry, then the family jewels and the things grandma left and a couple of months later, they come back and the king asks how they will pay and they give the king their house, and then their land, and then eventually they give the king their souls.
Now the king owns the people. They are the king’s slaves. And the king changes from benevolent to the opposite, a dictator, not a benevolent dictator.
Do we want this to happen in a world which has been free since 1945, to where we are all receiving the dole? Handed out by automatons that do all the work, and where they pay all the taxes? Or where the people who own everything pay us, because humans are still so much more powerful than robots?
Or do we want a different answer? In 1999, I invented this answer. Then I heard about the Fourth Industrial Revolution and I knew the world needed this answer. Is anyone listening? I don’t know. Let’s see.
(c) David Lipschitz, 2019. Feel free to use this information, as long as you reference me. Without Prejudice. I’m not saying that Jeff or Jack or Bill or Warren or Apple or Tesla will do these things. I’m just pointing out that these are the current kings (kingpins) in 2019, and let’s understand where we are going and where we have the potential to go - up and down.
PS: My big dream? I want to meet our Galactic Neighbours, not by physically travelling to them, but by using my mind to “see” them. In order to do this I need free food, free water, free electricity. I need a healthy mind in a healthy body. I need accommodation, and I need clothing. And this is possible in a Fourth Industrial Revolution world where my mind can be liberated from the mundane business of making enough money to live each day. But not if I become a slave, and my mind becomes enslaved, as has happened so many times in the past, when a benevolent king became a malicious, narcissistic, king.
PPS: A recent article: 26 own the same as 3.8 billion
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