Humans in the Culture are generally improved in a few ways (they don't get sick, live for 300-400 years by default etc) but still very human.
I do recall a bit about playing in different worlds in dreams though, during sleep. Ultimately, really, the average person's life in the Culture already involves doing pretty much whatever they like within reason any time, so it's not like they need to escape too much real-world suffering.
Iain M Banks himself described the relationship between humans and the ship Minds as having "a status somewhere between passengers, pets and parasites."[2]
[1] For example, https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/Grey_Area
Sounds like children tbh. Disclaimer: have children
> The surface of the Earth has been reshaped into Agent-4’s version of utopia: datacenters, laboratories, particle colliders, and many other wondrous constructions doing enormously successful and impressive research. There are even bioengineered human-like creatures (to humans what corgis are to wolves) sitting in office-like environments all day viewing readouts of what’s going on and excitedly approving of everything, since that satisfies some of Agent-4’s drives.33 Genomes and (when appropriate) brain scans of all animals and plants, including humans, sit in a memory bank somewhere, sole surviving artifacts of an earlier era.
You wish. If humanity survives as "bio trophies," they'll be the descendants of a subset of billionaires and their groupies/harems. We live in a capitalist society, where the only ones allowed to thrive without work are the rich. The rest of us will be left to rot and die off, as we will have nothing left to sell in the market that they want.
Still, I think they learned their lesson and they'll have a primary next time. People will get to vote on a candidate they like. We should also remember that the Presidency is just one arm of government. Elections are also happening for the House, Senate, and local government of all shapes and sizes.
In the past few terms we have very bitterly learned that the President just does whatever he wants, the House doesn't do anything, and Senate is mostly interested in getting bribed.
The republican party treated him like a joke candidate and the media did too. Similar thing with the tea baggers, a contingent of outsider congressmen elected on the back of Obama being a communist or something.
The left hasn't really had this moment because the left is closer to a catty book club than an army regiment.
A well-funded minority can shape what the majority is angry about.
Historically, if democratic institutions failed, refusing labor to a ruling class has been a first violent step for the laborer class and a preemption against actual physical violence if the ruling class overstepped. However, we are seeing that possibility being taken away step by step. This leaves only physically violent uprising as a means of protesting overstep, and it is not obvious how effective that will be given the massive power imbalance between the labor class and ruling class.
So to put it succinctly, no I don’t have faith that democracies will solve this issue, because democracies only work when there is some semblance of equilibrium.
Basically the ruling class's need for labor gave that labor some intrinsic power, but technology like AI will likely remove that need and therefore take the common people's power away.
> This leaves only physically violent uprising as a means of protesting overstep, and it is not obvious how effective that will be given the massive power imbalance between the labor class and ruling class.
Also things like gun control and new technology like cheap anti-personnel attack drones may undermine the effectiveness of violence against the ruling class, leaving regular people oppressed (or neglected) and helpless.
We are so divided and mislead that I feel confident there is a significant sum of non-ruling class individuals who are completely for their own oppression for no reason other than spiting a perceived “other”.
Some other specific examples that don’t all flow together:
Globalism promised efficiency and a way to materially improve conditions for people as consumers and producers. However it has been used as a cudgel to threaten workers that would ask for more and keep down workers who have no other option. Also pitting working class people against each other for the benefit of a few.
Social media, it promised untold communication between people who would never have been able to communicate before, and it would allow them to spread ideas. Instead it is used as a dumping ground of nonsense information, drowning out any semblance of coherent thought.
However, what I was trying to convey is that voting is not inherently something that holds sway over anything. Votes are sort of like the currency of democracy, and like currency they need to be backed by something. U.S dollars are backed by the countries capacity to physically control strategic resources like oil, land, etc. (I.e., the U.S capacity for violently controlling resources), or emit soft-power (swaying other countries to their benefit).
Votes in a similar fashion are also backed by your ability to deny or inflict your personal power on the system you are a a part of. The clearest manifestation of that power being your ability to contribute to the institution as a whole. If we significantly reduced that capacity, or made it unnecessary for the continuation of the current system, then the power of that vote is reduced in-kind.
I would frame "withholding labour as violence" as more as labor flexing its power nonviolently. Violent action is also a way of flexing power, but more extreme.
> I also don't follow the logic that workers must use violence to enact change.
I think they need to use power, which is not necessarily violent.
> Why don't they just vote for change?
At least in the US, democratic institutions are dysfunctional and there are techniques the ruling class can use to neutralize the threat they pose (e.g. propaganda, divide-and-conquer). For instance, I think the combination of "culture war issues," [1] campaign contributions, and well-funded special-interest think tanks means neither US political party will take effective action to answer the threat of AI to the livelihoods of most people. You might see some campaign rhetoric and window-dressing bills, but nothing that will really threaten AI special interests.
[1] I think the practical purpose of "culture war issues" is to fragment the working class by alienating a significant fractions from each other. IMHO, if the Democratic party was serious about representing labor, it would call a truce on them (either significantly compromise or table the issues), but it's not serious, so they continue to divide.
That falls cleanly in the realm of a violent act, unless you disagree with that definition of violence, or my interpretation of the quote. I suppose you could interpret it as only applying to physical violence, but I don’t think anyone would agree that psychological or emotional violence simply don’t exist.
I suppose the future you envision is that the government is a) very powerful, b) capable of physically suppressing the majority of 350M people, c) willing to do it, and d) somehow captured by an elite class. It's not impossible, but a lot of things have to go wrong to get there.
> government should be small enough that it fears the people
How would that work when the government controls the military? Would that mean that a country's military has to remain small?
> How would that work when the government controls the military? Would that mean that a country's military has to remain small?
I think what you need is a serious citizen militia that controls its own equipment. IIRC, that's what allowed the American Revolution to work.
If you only have a military of professional soldiers answering to the government, the government will have much less fear of its people.
But I think focusing on government power is far too narrow, because it might so weak the elites (like the wealthy) won't the government either. The government should be small enough that it fears the people, and the wealthy should be poor enough that they fear the people, too.
You know anyone can own the means of production in a capitalist society?
The irony of the anti-capitalist crowd is their extreme distaste for capital ownership, which leads them to never partake in the most fruitful part of capitalism. What truly makes this ironic is that if the evil capitalists wanted a plan to cement their power, it would look a lot like spreading "I will never become a filthy shareholder!" mentality.
> You know anyone can own the means of production in a capitalist society?
Don't be an idiot. I'm pretty sure you know your point is dumb, but I'll spell it out for you in case you don't:
Sure, "anyone" can own some of means of production in the current system, but not in large enough quantities to thrive without work. The vast majority of people aren't that rich.
> The irony of the anti-capitalist crowd is their extreme distaste for capital ownership, which leads them to never partake in the most fruitful part of capitalism. What truly makes this ironic is that if the evil capitalists wanted a plan to cement their power, it would look a lot like spreading "I will never become a filthy shareholder!" mentality.
What kind of idiocy is that? You're almost certainly talking about some imagined straw-man in your head, but pretty much all the "anti-capitalist" ideas I'm aware of are about distributing ownership of "shares" differently than in our current system.
I'm sure you think you're being very clever and making very powerful points, but stuff like what you've written actually makes the anti-capitalist case more appealing. I used to be a libertarian, but sustained contact with attitudes like yours changed my mind.
OMG! There's this thing called retirement in old age? I've never heard of it. TIL! /s
Working your whole life in stable job to save up a nest egg (which you typically then proceed to spend down), in no way contradicts any of the points I was making.