Our slide into a cyberpunk dystopia

This might happen before the end

Some people fantasize about a collapse of industrial civilization returning us to a more primitive world (or total destruction). Others think there will be a singularity that creates a tech utopia where everyone can enjoy luxuries beyond our imagination. Personally I think the mid-term future is a lot darker.

We will likely see tech booms amidst regional disasters and wars, but the system will compensate for this and continue moving along. There will be no Mad Max or utopia, instead we are slowly sliding towards cyberpunk dystopia.

But if this is the biblical end times, then things will get even worse for humans on this planet.

High unemployment for humans

AI, robotics and automation in general will likely result in overall higher unemployment rates, even in advanced economies. The value of human labour will decrease as AI and robots can do our jobs more efficiently and at a lower cost.

Many low level white collar office jobs will disappear or be severely reduced. Jobs that are done on a computer are most at risk, as it is already possible to let an AI take over a computer and perform tasks.

Some jobs rather than being entirely replaced, will be augmented by AI, allowing a worker to handle more customers or projects. The result is companies will need less human employees. This could be for example doctors, paralegals, human resources workers and programmers. ChatGPT already performs better on US medical exams than human doctors. High level programmers can use AI as an assistant and handle more coding projects by themselves or with a smaller team than previously.

But certain jobs will likely prevail, for now. Blue collar jobs like plumbers, electricians, chimney sweepers, cleaners and maybe even dishwashers are harder to automate. Imagine a robot reaching under your sink to replace a broken pipe, it’s simply not flexible enough to do that. These jobs are also done in a lot of different environments, not every sink is the same. An AI powered robot might have difficulty adapting to these circumstances as it cannot train thousands of times on every different environment.

That said, there will be more people training into these jobs, so the competition will increase and that puts a downward pressure on wages going forward.

The third-wordlification of the West

Advanced economies like those in the West will probably become more like third world countries. For example currently the unemployment rate in the United States is around 4-5%, while in South Africa it is 28%. During Weimar Germany, unemployment was around 20-30%.

As unemployment rises due to automation, consumer spending will decrease, and that will incentivize companies to cut costs by firing more workers and possibly even increasing automation. This is a downward economic death spiral.

In the future we might see more ghettos in Western countries, and enclaves of the rich that are protected by private security forces. For example in South Africa there are around 2.7 million private security employees.

But some rich people might also flee to tax havens like Switzerland, Dubai or Hong Kong. This is already happening in Norway due to tax increases. But it may accelerate when people demand some sort of basic income to compensate for their job losses. Basic income would require higher taxes of some sort, which is like kryptonite to the wealthy.

Climate chaos is going to get worse

Some people think climate change isn’t real, some admit it’s real but not that significant, while others say it will collapse our entire global civilization in the near future.

I’m a rebel and disagree with them all. I think climate change is real, but it will be death by a thousand cuts rather than a kill shot. People underestimate the flexibility of the global industrial system, and also the desire of necrocapitalists in maintaining their wealth and power.

There might be a drought here, and a flood there. Some cities or regions might never be rebuilt after a major disaster, and just left as wastelands. The people will migrate elsewhere. One example of this is the coastal city of Acapulco in Mexico. It was hit by Hurricane Otis in 2023, but it still hasn’t been restored. It was also hit by another hurricane this year. As climate chaos continues and gets worse, some areas will become uninsurable and abandoned.

Our new living situation

In many places, even in the West, there will likely be a lot of homelessness and severe poverty, much like there is today in some African countries. In DR Congo for example, 1 in 4 people suffer from crisis levels of hunger.

But what we might also see is unused commercial real-estate and other buildings being converted into pod complexes. Although this will require some changes to zoning laws and other regulations. More people, even formerly middle class native Westerners, might start living much like poor immigrants. Sometimes 5-10 immigrants live in one run-down apartment, crammed together like sardines. This is especially true if mass immigration to the West continues.

Additionally there may emerge more shantytowns, favelas and tent cities. We’re already seeing this appear in Europe, and the US has a longer history of tent cities and mass homelessness.

But for those who continue living in regular apartments or houses, costs such as heating and electricity might increase. It’s possible that more of the electricity grid will be used to power data centers like those for the cloud, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency mining. As climate change renders some agricultural areas unfarmable, we might shift part of agriculture indoors like hydroponics, insect farming or growing algae and bacteria in bioreactors. This would require more energy from the power grid as well.

Bread and circuses will continue

In ancient Rome the state controlled people’s behaviour with bread and circuses. This is happening right now to some degree as well, except people pay for it themselves with their labour rather than the Emperor footing the bill.

The future of bread and circuses is more dystopian but less bloody than gladiator arenas. We might see cheap or even free synthetic drugs, cheap slop food and more virtual entertainment, including AI girlfriends and virtual reality.

If automation makes it super cheap to provide this kind of entertainment and basic food security to sedate the population, then it might actually happen. The alternative could be having to deal with more civil unrest and even rebellions. Then the state would have to crack down hard like in North Korea. But even North Korea is propped up by China, and China relies on trade with the West and other countries.

AI enhanced social control

In addition to the bread and circuses, another method of social control is the AI enhanced digital control grid. In China they already have this and a social credit score that gives slaves, ahem, citizens different perks and privileges depending on how high their score is.

We already partially have this in the West. Social media users that talk about certain topics are “cancelled” depending on the social media platform. But there isn’t any official social credit score yet, although who knows how these platforms use our data. They are definitely profiling users based on what they view, post, share and like.

Additionally people are being influenced by both AI powered algorithms that promote whatever the platform owners want, and also bot farms that boost certain content with fake engagement. This creates the illusion that something is popular.

With future AI agents this kind of influence peddling might be in the hands of more nations, companies and even individuals. This could result in something like a digital ID to prove one’s identity online.

Will things improve?

Personally I am not confident things will improve. Due to my Christian beliefs I think we might truly be in the end times.

The environment is polluted and ecosystems are collapsing, the AI slave grid and tech dystopia are emerging quickly, and human social and spiritual degeneration is increasingly apparent. Even Christian churches are becoming corrupted by the world and straying from biblical teachings.

This might actually be it, folks. Prepare yourselves both physically and spiritually. We don’t know exactly what’s in store for us, although the Bible gives us some clues.