Comment by panarky | Hacker News Reader

Comment by panarky | Hacker News Reader

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A small island has 20 residents.

One farmer works full time to grow enough food to feed everyone.

One carpenter works full time to maintain housing for everyone.

The other 18 people work full time reciting incantations to the gods to prevent their destruction.

The farmer and the carpenter are too busy growing food and maintaining housing to recite incantations all day.

So each of the 18 incantation reciters spends an extra two hours every week to recite incantations for the farmer and the carpenter to prevent their destruction too.

Then a magic stone is discovered that can recite the incantations by itself, the gods are appeased, and nobody has to work full time reciting incantations any more.

How can the islanders possibly survive now that 90% of them don't have full-time jobs?

The farmer and the carpenter are no worse off, but they think it's unfair that they must continue working full-time while 90% of the residents don't work at all.

Perhaps the farmer and the carpenter should destroy the magic stone so that everyone will have full-time jobs again.

Or is there some other way the islanders can survive after 90% of the work has been eliminated?

So? You made up a story.

Here's mine: the island has a leader/owner, he takes the stone for himself. He tells the 18 incanters that they're obsolete, and lectures them about how the future is glorious and its all their fault they can't change with the times. Then he allocates more of the resources to himself. Sure, he doesn't "need" more, but it's abhorrent to pay moochers who are providing no value to him. He owes them nothing. The moochers die off, slowly or quickly, it doesn't really matter.

If the islanders are ever to band together and liberate themselves by seizing the magic stone, then they must first stop praising the owner for making them work, and they must stop plotting to destroy the magic stone that could liberate them from their toil.

> If the islanders are ever to band together and liberate themselves by seizing the magic stone, then they must first stop praising the owner for making them work, and they must stop plotting to destroy the magic stone that could liberate them from their toil.

Dude, your story proves nothing. It's a fantasy. It doesn't map to the society we live in, or any realistic social change. The islanders didn't do anything before the "magic stone" to change their situation ('cause that ain't the first stone, there have been dozens before it), and they're unlikely to do anything different afterwards.

Also, if you think about your story correctly: the "magic stone" doesn't liberate the islanders, it destroys their power to make change.

They can try, but it will be very difficult when the owner has mechanised autonomous killer bots that never sleep and won’t stop until every single incanter has been wiped out.

What about when the farmer and the carpenter are replaced by machines?

So much the better?

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