Some of the greatest minds of the century have predicted that computers or artificial intelligence will replace 80 percent, if not more, of the world's workforce. The only uncertainty is the time frame, with the average prediction at about 30 years, although many believe it will be sooner. No matter the exact period, the impact on our planet will eventually be enormous because governments will still need to find a way to provide the unemployed with money on which to live and a Universal Basic Income (UBI), or something similar, is proposed to be paid to everyone without means test. That solution might appear well in theory, but the large numbers of unemployed will not want to be marginalized and will demand over time that the UBI be increased. Following human nature, under a democratic system as we know it, supposedly based on one person one vote, people will vote for whoever gives them more, and more, until the economic system breaks down, unable to afford the payments. The question is whether democracy will survive the challenge or whether we finish with a benign group of bureaucrats at the top who decide what is in the best interests of the majority and the rest of the global population simply accepts it.

Autorentext

The British composer and music scholar Peter Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Music and Technology at the University of Edinburgh, where he established the electronic and computer music studios and led a research group in music and artificial intelligence. He met Iannis Xenakis in 1986 and became an associate of Xenakis's computer music studio Les Ateliers UPIC between 1987 and 1991, touring and teaching with the Atelier and composing a number of works for UPIC. Between 1992 and 2022 he was Editor of the international journal Contemporary Music Review, published by Routledge.