Re'eh
Driverless Cars and a Workerless World
Dear Friend,
It’s official. There are driverless taxis on the streets. It may be six months or six years, but they’ll soon be everywhere, and they will likely change the way we approach car ownership (who needs it?), commutes (ditto) and shopping (assuming the drones don’t corner that market first).
It sounds like a page from a sci-fi script, but this is real life, and we are in it.
If artificial intelligence continues to grow exponentially—and it seems to be a foregone conclusion that it will—then many of us will find ourselves with a lot of time on our hands. How the market will reform to accommodate so many consuming humans in a world where production requires so few humans is anyone’s guess. Yes, it’s scary. No, there is little most of us can do about it.
Best-case scenario: There will be lots of goodness to go around, and everyone will have what he or she needs in abundance. To quote the words of Maimonides: “In that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither envy nor strife, because good will emanate in abundance and all delightful things will be accessible as dust. The one preoccupation of the entire world will be solely to know G‑d.”
May it indeed be so. Amen!
Menachem Posner
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
PS: How do you feel about driverless cars? Would you be comfortable in one? Do you think they are a step in the right direction? Please share a comment and let us know.
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