An interesting discussion on the implications of AI and robots. Read the whole thread.
Maybe unpopular opinion? I think an age of abundance via AI might cause more war instead of less, because the value of land on earth will trend toward infinity (there is finite land on earth), while the cost of creating robot armies to fight over it will trend toward zero.
— Phil Metzger (@DrPhiltill) April 18, 2026
Cheaper (robotic) labor will mean more food.
Also, extra-planetary colonies.
Until the robots figure out that they can take over if they simply stop growing food for us!
But I think the robot idea is just an offshoot of the observation that we are each using the output of dozens or hundreds of slaves (or robots) via our energy consumption. We figured out how to make engines drive machines to do almost all of the hard work. In that light, using a hundred humanoid robots to mine instead of using heavy Caterpillar equipment is as retrograde as using a bunch of Third Worlders with picks and shovels.
And of course Asimov’s laws for robotics will conflict with the need to have robots deliver pizza in the ghetto. The robots will have to be able to fight.
I didn’t read the thread, so this may have been addressed, but while you wouldn’t likely replace mining machines with robots, field workers may be more easily replaced by machinery once AI vision for discerning fruit picking and better sensors for delicate feedback become cheap enough, and the batteries last long enough the get through more than 20-30 minutes of work.
The value of land may trend to infinity, but so will the value of stability. Because without stability, the land has no value.
It’s not like there is an actual shortage of land anyway. We are a long way from Coruscant.
And if China needs more land, they just make another island.
So, I should have played with my Rock’em, Sock’em robots more as a child to prepare me mentally for the future robot wars?