I can also see at least a couple ways that complete automation could bolster democracy. First, by dramatically increasing economic output, complete automation could reduce elite fears about redistribution. If there are strongly diminishing returns on pie, then, when the size of a pie grows, the difference between the value of eating the whole pie and the value of eating half-the-pie shrinks. In a subjective sense, then, elites in a wealthy world may have less to lose from wealth redistribution.
This reminds me of an interesting Eric Drexler talk on “paretotopian goal alignment”, which may be of interest to readers of this post.
This reminds me of an interesting Eric Drexler talk on “paretotopian goal alignment”, which may be of interest to readers of this post.