If you can trust you fridge to reorder milk when you're close to running out, *you* can relax and take it as slow or as frenzied as you actually want to that moment. Automation also makes engineering sustainability easier (reduce waste, close material flow loops etc).
Conversation
Consumption automation also implies budget management automation. Bringing the idea of "pay yourself first" (a slogan common in the US that means "automate deposits in retirement savings") to all your spending, but without getting into unsustainable spending.
1
2
8
Fortunately the bar to beat there, at least in the US (and possibly most of the west) is low... people suck at living within their means and avoiding credit card/other debt traps. Automated consumption is likely to do better than humans do.
1
1
6
Like driverless cars but for personal finance. This tech needs to be invented, since all automation is for/by the forces designed to get people into debt traps rather than into a healthy financial state.
2
4
17
Post-capitalism challenge is to invent a way to do 3 things at once:
a) keep pace of economic life as fast as it needs to be via consumption automation
b) use the automation to make it sustainable environmentally
c) decouple pace of human life from pace of economic engines
2
3
37
Replying to
You can automate the decision to purchase goods, but that just gets you to "what service or experience should I consume next".
1
1
Replying to
It might yes, but it's not as much of an opportunity/temptation rich environment.
1
Replying to
In the sense that I can purchase many goods simultaneously whereas I can only experience one thing at a time, maybe, but there's still the same sort of economic pressure, so I don't see how good purchase automation necessarily decouples economic growth from daily living.
1
Replying to
Anecdotally it does happen when you manage to delegate most routine spending to another human, so in principle automatable.
2
Replying to
I think you're right that automated purchasing would do better than us biased meatsacks, but I'm not sure it necessarily regains control over temporality. You still have to be at a place at a time to get deliveries, meet service providers, etc.
1
Replying to
They're all getting solved on terms that return control to you. Eg. Amazon locker is easier than "have to be at home"
Replying to
Yes, for goods but not services. I can give a housecleaning service an entry code, but am I enjoying the fruits of that convenience, or just getting to the next decision faster?
1
Replying to
In my experience if you do this enough, you’re changing temporality lanes. It’s a bit like getting off the 9-5 clock on the producing side. Cascade of changes once you’re in free agency.
1
Show replies

