For Joy and Wisdom

Segment from a chapter late in the book

  Across from the cathedral is a McDonald’s. 

  “I want some french-fries,” Tyler says, “McDonald’s fries are like a religion to me,” and he darts inside the building. 

  I can’t argue with that, and just shrug in response as I stand outside and finish my ice cream cone.  When he returns, we sit together on some steps across from the cathedral, and he shares the french-fries with me. 

  “I used to work at McDonald’s,” I tell him.  “It was one of the worst things I ever had to do.  I worked in the drive through, reading a screen for orders, bagging fries, and handing the food to people.  It was so repetitive I couldn’t stand it; it was like a programmed dance that I couldn’t escape.  I remember looking around one day and thinking it was like being inside of an engine or something.  I felt like a human piston inside an engine.  I even dreamt about bagging fries at night between shifts.  It was terrible.  I can’t wait for the day when a robot can bag the fries, and people don’t have to do it anymore.  Then we can spend our time jamming in bands or something instead.” 

  I am serious about it though.  People should not be forced to do what robots can do for us; it is a waste of life and immoral.  I sit there looking at this new cathedral in front of us.  It is nowhere near as spectacular as the one we just came from.  This one is a gray cement dome with a flat looking top; the dome is missing the tip of its roof.

  “So what’s up with this cathedral?” I ask Tyler. 

  He begins talking to me like a tour guide.  “It has a big hole in the roof, and the religion says that it is either to let the angels out, so they can go to Heaven, or to let the demons down onto Earth.” 

  “What!?”

  “Yeah, they weren’t sure.” 

  “Well at least they are honest about it.  So this is the revolving door between Heaven and Hell huh…” 

  “Pretty much.” 

  “Right on, let’s go inside and see.” 

  “The heating bill must be astronomical here,” I say.

  We walk around and I listen to the changing acoustics in the dome.  The sound of the place changes depending upon where I stand relative to the center of the circular room. 

  We run into another American guy and start a conversation.  He’s a fit guy, and his name is Chris.  He looks like a breakdancer, or an athlete or something. 

  “So what do you do?” I ask him. 

  “I am an Under Armour Clothing Rep.  I was just given an assignment in Luxembourg, and am traveling around Europe to check the place out.” 

  “Oh… cool.  We both just graduated, and are traveling around to see the world, too.” 

  Chris is a nice guy, and seems to have his life together pretty well.  I get his contact information, and we make plans to get together and party sometime. 

  Tyler and I leave the cathedral a few minutes later, without ever seeing even one angel released or a single demon cast out of Heaven.  We walk along the flat stone road.  The cement is smooth rock.  The traction on my shoes has been worn down to nothing from all the walking and hiking on this trip.  So I put my foot on the ground and slide across it on my flat soles, like I am skating on air.  It’s good fun. 

  As we walk the streets of Rome, Tyler and I duck into some little stores, just to look around.  I go into an art shop by myself, and watch a man as he paints a picture.  Tyler keeps on going, but I stay; it’s really interesting to me. 

  After a few minutes of watching the man making lines and spreading colors with his brush on the painting, I leave his studio, and try to catch Tyler

up the street. 

  As I walk by myself, I think about the cathedral we just visited, with the hole in the ceiling to release the angels up to Heaven or let the demons onto Earth, and of us eating the french-fries in front of it, and my telling Tyler that I want robots to work those terrible fry bagging jobs instead of people.  I don’t know if having robots do our jobs for us will be like releasing people up to a heavenly state of permanent paid-vacation, or just be letting a bigger problem onto Earth, but I think it is what is going to happen.  Maybe Tyler took what I said seriously or maybe not, but I am sure he would prefer not to have to bag fries, and to be free instead.  That is probably why he spent so much time and money investing in school, so not to have to do a shitty job like working in fast food. 

  Robotics can change so much in this world, functionally in how it operates, and emotionally with how people live and respect each other.  If most people did not have to work, and everyone was able to live with enough resources to have food, shelter, communication, transportation, and financial freedom, the world would be a better place to be born into.  We would have stepped the Garden of Eden up a notch.  Maybe that is the transition the Protestant work ethic has been working towards, the reason to bear the working-class-cross. 

  I take a breath as I walk by myself.

  We should give the work to the robots, and the freedom to the people.  People’s lives are worth more than the jobs that they perform, and if we can stand on that as a moral fact, and act on it infrastructurally, we may have a shot at making a transition to an economy geared toward the freedom and enjoyable experience of all the people it affects, a shot at freeing the working class from servitude. 

  To really do it, we will need to change the way money is cycled around in our society.  One way would be to amend the Constitution to say: “Every person has the right to one equal share of the Representative Robotic Labor Force.” And just like how the government gives citizens social security numbers, it would give citizens robots to rent out and do the jobs that people don’t have to do anymore. 

  Maybe that is just wishful thinking, but it is not like we can stop the advancement of technology.  And what is humanity’s plan of action for when technology has advanced to the point that a robot can do most jobs cheaper than a human, cheaper than minimum wage even.  The way it is now, it would be natural to the gears of capitalism for all the businesses to buy a bunch of robots for themselves, and fire most of their human employees.  But if any businesses were allowed to do that, then they would all need to do it in order to stay competitive and profitable.  If all the businesses fired their human workers, then most people would be out of work and have no money, and the robots would be creating products that people would not have any money to buy, and the businesses would fail.  It would shoot our consumer cycle in the foot, and strangle the economy to the point that the capitalist system might fail. 

  Instead, if the businesses rent the robots from the government, and the government gives the rental money to the people, then the people will have the money to buy the products from the businesses, and the consumer cycle can continue.  The capitalist system can survive this way, maybe even flourish, and the once working class will be free to experience life without the influence of an employer and the forced motivation of money and profits.

  The converting of the employment system, to a Representative Robotic Labor system, will be as big of a social transition as when slavery systems were replaced by more equal ways of life.  The conditioned mentalities of people will be one of the greatest social advancements to come.  It will be a different use of our energies than most capitalists are accustomed to providing, to give a new meaning to life for those people who have had a directed purpose for so very long.  Viewing people to help each of us grow as content beings, rather than utilizing each others functionality, will be what is promoted as influential in society.  This change in our socio-economic system will give rise to what the wisest elements of the world can offer, rather than giving authority to what the most powerful are able to dictate.  And really, what would a child prefer to be raised by?  

  These changes will not be able to happen overnight, but some type of change is unavoidable.  Technological growth cannot be prevented in capitalist society.  So, there will come a day when it is cheaper for machines to do most jobs instead of humans, and we will have to deal with this economic transition in one way or another.  Our system will just have to adapt to its new environment; it is a matter of evolution.  The Representative Robotic Labor Force can serve as a technological plateau for better types of social and economic systems to work for humanity.  

  I keep walking.  I still haven’t found Tyler.  He’s long gone. 

  Chris, the Under Armour Rep, pulls up alongside me on a motorcycle,

  “You want a ride?” 

  “Hell yes,” I say to him, and I hop on the back.