Roboeconomics
Visions of AIs and the economy in science fiction
Historical examples like the Luddites of the 19th century and the American folktale of John Henry show: for as long as industrial society has existed, people have been anxious about the prospect of technological advancements putting them out of work. This uneasiness has only gotten stronger over time — headlines increasingly fret about the danger of robots taking our jobs, and a second-tier US presidential candidate built his campaign around the issue of automation this year. If we extrapolate from current trends, it seems like our economy is on a collision course with artificial intelligence that will change the way we work and live.
In this curatorial project, I will examine the ways science fiction has depicted artificial intelligence’s impact on the economy at large. Will we harness AI to create a post-scarcity utopia where all people’s needs are met? Will robots outcompete humanity to leave us as economic also-rans on our own planet? Or will humans and AIs coexist as distinct entities in some kind of mutually beneficial partnership? So far, it’s impossible to say, but science-fiction allows us to envision these possible futures and think more deeply about our relationship to technology and the economy.
Accelerando (2005) amazon
Charles Stross’ novel Accelerando traces a multi-generational family’s arc before, during and after the AI singularity.
While the main cast takes a long interstellar voyage, artificial intelligences develop “economics 2.0”, which replaces the money system “with some kind of insanely baroque object-relational framework based on the parametrized desires and subjective experiential values of the players.” This new system is not comprehensible by humans.
The protagonists return to Earth to find themselves extremely bankrupt and unable to afford planetary life; most of human civilization has moved to habitats orbiting Saturn where the rent is more manageable.
The Matrix Universe (1999)
In the universe of the Wachowski’s The Matrix and its sequels, the war that resulted in humanity’s enslavement began with an economic competition between man and machines. Anti-AI discrimination lead the machines to found their own city, “01”, which eventually came to dominate the world economy and led to the devaluation of human currency and labor.
When humanity’s economic blockade of the city failed to slow the collapse of the global economy, they launched the war that the machines eventually won. In the present day of the film universe, humans’ only role in the “economy” is as a passive power source for the machines.
Dune (1965)
In Dune, artificial intelligence pointedly does not exist. Hundreds of years prior to the events of the novel, all “thinking machines” were destroyed and outlawed in a war known as the “Butlerian Jihad.” However, we can infer the effects of AI’s absence from the economy that does exist.
With technology (as we know it) constrained, humanity has reverted to large-scale feudalism, with tributary planets paying tithes to a few powerful families. Resource extraction (of spice, necessary for computer-free space navigation) is the major driver of the economy.
Westworld (2020)
The ongoing season of HBO’s Westworld envisions an economy planned and managed completely by a powerful AI entity called Rehoboam. The intelligence, designed idealistically by Engerraud Serac as “a new god”, guides and constrains the career and interpersonal prospects of every human. The system is mostly successful and has ushered in a new era of global peace and prosperity, at least until the current season of the show.
Blade Runner (1982, 2017)
In Blade Runner, synthetic humans called replicants (somewhat ambiguous engineered clones or robots) are an essential component of the economy, used as slave labor and military conscripts for humanity’s off-world ventures. Replicants were banned and unbanned several times on Earth, serving in the larger economy in the sequel Blade Runner: 2049. Traditional humans are shown to be bigoted against replicant neighbors and coworkers.
Alien (1979) and sequels
Synthetic humans perform a similar role in the Alien franchise. The Weiland-Yutani corporation sends synthetics (organic robots virtually indistinguishable from humans) on space missions, where they are prized for their strength, rationality and ability to survive in harsh xenoplanetary environments. The synthetics are property of the corporation rather than autonomous entities.
Culture series (1987)
Iain Banks’ Culture series is centered on a civilization called the Culture, where humans and artificial intelligences coexist. The society is interstellar and post-scarcity, with non-sentient devices and high-level artificial intelligences maintaining the economy such that citizens are freely provided with essentially anything they want in a system described as “space socialism”. Money does not exist within the Culture — “money implies poverty” — nor do laws as such.
Star Wars (1979) and sequels
Droids in the Star Wars franchise take on a number of roles in the economy, including dangerous ones (astromechanics, soldiers, bounty hunters) as well as those that require precision and recall. Droids are divided into five classes based on their occupational function and abilities. Droids are usually considered property and used instrumentally, although cut content from a deprecated continuity mentions a droid-run planet.
Manna (2003)
Marshall Brain’s novel Manna describes two potential paths for humanity’s automated future. In a hypercapitalist USA, automation leads to massive inequality, squalor and crowding for the masses as a privileged few benefit. Australia follows a different path, developing an agalmic system that uses automation to free up people’s time and provide for them materially.
