INTO THE FUTURE

As an economist with the benefit of having worked around the world in over 50 countries and many more visited, it has always been a challenge to try and make sense of where humans have come from and where they are going, hence these warts and all posts under DEVOLUTION - THE NEXT 100 YEARS.

One of the experts in this field, Israeli professor Yuval Harari in his famous book leading into AI's overtaking of humanity as we know it, has predicted the coming of "The useless people". These he sees as unemployable, their jobs having been taken over by robots. While making an adequate case for his predictions, he has been too scared to offer a solution beyond the idea of a "Universal Basic Income" for these people, funded by big business under governments supervision. Unfortunately this is not really how human nature works. Some of this, even if UBI were implemented, would without a single world government not see the USA pay everyone a UBI across Africa. Or since someone will still have to work to make it happen, these people would resent why they should be the only ones still having to work. So what are the answers?

While some humans are able to live longer, only those who are starting to feel their age from say mid 80s, along with the ailments that brings, might look at life differently. As the pace of living increases and one finds children moving to other parts of the world not bringing comfort earlier experienced, or one finishing up in a nursing home, people start comparing the great life they used to experience against what they now have to live with and begin thinking whether it could be better opting out while memories were at the top rather than experiencing continual aches and pains - or having to get up three times a night heading for the toilet.

This is where "Dr. Death Nitschke" comes in. Defrocked doctor Jack Kevorkian, recently released after eight years of a 25-year sentence for assisting suicide, would in future get around this legality under a first Swiss law permitting self-induced suicide, removing the "assisted" part. In this Nitschke will make freely available his print to make his suicide pod which individuals can employ without any further consultation or assistance. After death seemingly there is not much the law can do about it. The catch however would be the legality in obtaining the chemicals which do the killing. The solution would not seem that attractive if one didn't believe there was a wonderful heaven waiting but then, let us remember even Jesus had enough on the cross and asked to be taken...