With these technological advancements, capitalism is only continuing for the sake of it

With advancements in technology, some of which were established to a large extent in the 1990s, capitalism is long outdated. The thing is, people can be addicted to anything.

Some consumers are addicted to what David Graeber called “bullshit jobs” — labour that’s not necessary or fun, but exists for the sake of it. And on the other hand, people are, in a way, forced into such employment because of the system treating housing and essentials as assets for the rich to rent out. Meanwhile, capitalists are attached to money and power.

Capitalism vs autonomous vehicles

The technology has long been established to liberate people from bullshit jobs and build a society that is truly modern.

In the 1980s, scientist Ernst Dickmanns led a group of German engineers to develop the first autonomous vehicle that could navigate traffic on public roads. This was delivered in France in 1994, where a self-driving car took people from Charles de Gaulle airport to travel on a nearby motorway.

The thing is, the car could only navigate roads and environments that were predictable like a motorway. But the fact this happened over 30 years ago shows that capitalism may be lagging behind in technological development, given autonomous vehicles are still not widely available.

The current societal system could well not be optimal partly because patents prevent people from building upon established technology. German companies hold over half the patents for autonomous vehicles. And if you want to build an autonomous vehicle you cannot use any of those patented processes without a license. It’s true that there may be some benefits to this. For instance, new processes may be more efficient and bring new ground to the science. But if a process is established and works, it might make sense for more people to use it.

In the years after, developments in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology have enabled self-driving cars to operate in increasingly chaotic environments. Such developments have also enabled autonomous hoovers, which have been around for decades, while robots can now use SLAM technology to fix your boiler.

When it comes to autonomous vehicles that are active for public use, the ParkShuttle has been used in Rotterdam in the Netherlands since 1999. It is a self-driving bus that operates between Kralingse Zoom metro station in to Capelle aan den IJssel.

Autonomous farming

Farming could also be automated, providing us with food at zero labour cost. The first driverless tractor was demonstrated at Reading University in 1958, using a cable-guided system. Yet fast forward nearly 70 years later and only 5% of farms globally use self-driving tractors, according to research by McKinsey. In the 1990s, the first autonomous tractor without using underground cables was developed in the UK. It’s clear we could have used these advancements to progress in a more equitable manner.

Vertical and automated farming systems could deliver the infrastructure capable of producing enough food for everyone in the UK without anyone labouring away. This could also reduce the amount of food the UK imports (currently at 46%).

The appeal of vertical farming is that it creates the conditions to grow almost anything, anywhere. A University of Surrey study found that vertical farms offer 20 times the yield of traditional farms. It also found that changing the materials used could drop vertical farming emissions by 95%.

Elsewhere, people are already delivering automated farming. In China, there are unmanned farms with smart management systems, along with aerial and ground robots.

It’s obvious that an automated system that liberates people from labour that is unnecessary or not fun is available. But will we just continue with capitalism for the sake of it?

Featured image via the Canary