Hacker News Reader

Comment by beaned | Hacker News Reader

I think this is probably true. Historically children would provide for their elders, but that role is fulfilled now more by technology, so in practical terms, they are less needed. It's an emergent trend of humans+technology that acts as a natural limit to our growth, so that as a species we don't just eat all the carrots and die like the rabbits would.

I do fear that Idiocracy might be a little accurate though. The people reproducing currently are the ones who do not consider their future or economics, while the smart ones who do, have less children.

View on HN

> Historically children would provide for their elders, but that role is fulfilled now more by technology, so in practical terms, they are less needed.

You weren't watching the magician's hands closely enough.

The role is fulfilled by tax dollars that come from the youngest working generation. Might be tech involved, but the revenue still pays for the tech.

A common and understandable misconception.

It's the machines that actually pay for most things we enjoy today.

The keyboard you're typing your responses on, display you're reading this message from and virtually everything else in our silicon worlds* were not touched by human hands during production. Money is just an accounting method to allocate the production output.

Interestingly even the keyboards don't need that much of a human touch to type these days.

* other notable examples are almost 100% of the energy we use (electricity, hydrocarbons), majority of the global human caloric intake (grains, fats, sugars, potatoes, etc.), most raw materials (metals, fibers, hydrocarbons again, etc.), tools

And for the remainder, at this point it's just a matter of time before Humans Need Not Apply

The country you live in doesn't have the machines to make those goods.

The country that has the machines, wants cash. Where will you tax the revenue from? Are you hoping for some sort of technological charity? The Chinese will just ship us 10 million ass-wiping robots for the nursing homes for free, because they're a kind and benevolent people?

I understand things perfectly well.

That's a matter of organization, not production; No country is self-reliant in production of the high tech goods

"Organization" won't make them give you the machines for free. And your tax base eroded out from under you.

If the country isn't self-reliant, no big deal... as long as they can pony up the cash. And your country can't do that either. Do you have any arguments that aren't pure sophistry?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com