Dick predicted all of this before many of us were even alive.
There is likely no escape from an inhuman future.
There is likely no escape from an inhuman future.
In 20th century you either had direct serfdom in some countries like Russia, while countries like US owned slaves indirectly by setting up large-scale production in 3rd world countries and controlling their governments.
Today we could probably breakdown the supply chain so that the lower you go by the ladder of "added value complexity", the more interchangeable and less free the people are. On the top of such chain there are managers, IT people, accountants and various service workers for the above who enjoy freedom while the bottom half of the supply chain is much more prosaic and constrained.
What is really disappointing is that today people have the illusion that somehow we have learned how to keep overbearing power concentration in check whereas it is manifestly not so. The informed and educated "middle class" that should know better (because it is its own existence that is at stake) is missing in action. [My take: A small fraction of it co-opted by the promise of joining the ruling elite, while the majority pushed down into the precariat]
The result is that the same old monsters re-emerge, now in digital clothes.