These days many political, social and religious concepts of past years stop working.
We are accustomed to various manifestations of the social contract. Society trusted the elites and allowed them to flourish in exchange for supporting cultural heritage and shaping the path for all of humanity. Unfortunately, today we know that people strive to “hack” any sets of rules, minimizing the efforts spent and maximizing the short-term gain. Thus, the idea of a platform aimed at choosing and supporting creators of high-quality content turns into an idea of self-ups, and censorship gradually penetrates the Internet.
Today, the humanity has come to the point where “hacking” of theft and deception has reached its historical maximum - in these days thieves become a function of theft, sacrificing traditions and other values in favor of increasing the efficiency of the process they serve.
Similar danger awaits us in the future — many experts may try to become functions of their specialties using the achievements of engineering and biology to modify their organisms. A complete rejection of consciousness and empathy may follow.
Some Russian thieves and oligarchs may serve a fine example. They could have picked the role of modern Tzars in their own country, staying corrupt and untouchable. And yet they travel to the USA and Europe to spend the loot there. They are sick of the world that they’ve built! This is somewhat abnormal and absurd. In foreign countries they can lose everything, yet they are willing to take the risk.
In the near future, AI and robots will create a performance boost similar to the one caused by the mastering of steam and the deployment of a railway network. The new “Wild West” will appear on the Internet - and only few will win it, who will later control the market. The modern economy works according to the “The winner takes it all” scenario.
It is impossible to compete with oligopolists with the means of the market of the past - fortunately, scientific progress offers us new means, including decentralization and automation. Just as the Factory has collected separate and inefficient individual processes, Factory 2.0 will collect the individual processes in virtual reality.
The physical roots of this new Factory will stay decentralized, while the core will reach an unprecedented level of unity. Meanwhile, the fractal nature of decentralization will ensure the impossibility of a “melting pot” scenario which would eventually reduce everything to a single government and a single system of values. Tightening censorship on some platforms will lead to the emergence of other options. Diversity will always remain.