Capitalism has proven itself to be extremely resilient. There have been many theories predicting its imminent demise yet through one crises after another it thrives. Creative destruction destroys old jobs and old ways of doing business but new ones arise in their place. The autoworker replaces the buggy-maker, new technologies create new opportunities. All the while the capitalist juggernaut moves unabated from strength to strength.

Why should we expect the Rise of the Robots to change this?

This section of the website addresses this question by presenting evidence of the revolutionary nature of these technologies. It focuses on how automation and digitization alter the existing relations of production and why this will alter the relations of all of society.

It is not advanced technology, per se, which disrupts society. Only those facets of it which revolutionize the social structure and transform the relations of production are  efficacious.  A cheap, general purpose robot will affect the labor market in a way that a cure for cancer (as marvelous as that might be) will not. This destabilization of society generates the unrest which calls for new political solutions.

The rise of the robots will not be business as usual. We have not been here before. This is an epoch of social change. We are revolutionizing the socio-economic foundation of our society. A new social consciousness will emerge.

This section of the website explains why.