Is Inequality at the Point of No Return?


The only time we had equality, writes Yuval Noah Harari in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, was when we were hunter-gatherers. Why?
“Because they had very little property. Property is a pre-requisite for long-term inequality.”
Agriculture was the beginning of inequality. Increased industrialization accelerated things. But then, ironically, industrialization also contributed to the reduction in inequality. Admittedly, in a roundabout and twisted way.

First, as the number of workers grew, they could form groups and unions and make demands. Next, when employee skills and intelligence began to matter, they were paid better and treated better. And as the demand for workers increased further, it opened employment doors for all “races, classes and genders”, eventually even other countries via outsourcing. All of which helped reduce inequality globally.

After the fall of communism, it looked like greater prosperity and thus reduced inequality was going to be the global norm. But now it increasingly looks like the riches are again concentrated with very few people. With a key difference. At all times, the rich could buy luxury goods and enjoy the good life. But now, with AI and biotech and implants looming:
“A biological gap might open up between the rich and the poor… It might result in ‘speciation’… If we are not careful, the grandchildren of Silicon Valley tycoons and Moscow billionaires might become a superior species.”
If you think a species level split is unlikely, then think of it as a split into “biological castes” instead. Either way, you see there this is going?
“Once a real gap in ability opens between the rich and the poor, it will become impossible to close it.”

Historically, the rich still needed the rest: as cheap labour, for raw materials, and as markets. What comes next though may be very different:
“A post-industrial civilization relying on AI, bioengineering and nanotechnology might be far more self-contained and self-sustaining… Fortifications guarded by drones and robots might separate the self-proclaimed civilized zone, where cyborgs fight one another with logic bombs, from the barbarian lands where feral humans fight one another with machetes and Kalashnikovs.”

Scary prospects indeed. And it explains why there is such a strong backlash against the elites, especially the tech elites. Since political systems evolve slowly and the folks in political science are rarely those with tech backgrounds or an understanding of tech, the prospects of the political system evolving to address this possibility isn’t exactly heartening…

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