this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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When the very first cars were built, only the rich could afford it, but now a large part of the population (in developed countries) has one or more.

What do you think will be such an evolution in the future?

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[–] some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 101 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Ocean-front property… 😜

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[–] sorebuttfromsitting@sopuli.xyz 94 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

better to ask, what can the average family afford now, but it won't be so accessible in the future?

water.

(where i am now, water costs money but is still doable)

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 76 points 1 year ago (12 children)

The average person will always be able to afford water because if they can't they will soon cease to be a person. Watch out for statistical effects like that because they might mask the true horror of the situation.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That line, "Cease to be a person," both applies to the sentiment of, "they won't live long," and, "when backed into a corner you see what someone can truly be."

Wars fought over drinkable water is not some far off fantasy but very well could (and likely will) become reality for many people.

The future for our little mud ball drifting through space suspended on a sun beam is looking pretty damn bleak.

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[–] Ado@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

How is that better lol, it’s a completely different line of thought.

[–] iamthewalrus@lemmy.world 79 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Lab-grown meat.

β€œIn 2013, the world’s first cultivated meat burger was served at a news conference in London. It allegedly cost $330,000 to make. That figure has plummeted in the almost-decade since, but cell-grown proteins are yet to clock in anywhere close to the same price as conventional meats.” (Source: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/lab-grown-meat)

The goal is to get the price down to a level the average supermarket shopper can afford, and if the science is successful it has the potential to revolutionize the food chain.

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 33 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Once this is available and affordable, I will never eat animal meat again.

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

Totally agree - from an ideological standpoint I totally agree with Vegans/Vegetarians on the fact that meat produces unnecessary suffering and (more directly important to us humans) huge amounts of greenhouse gases and wasted calories. But from a practical standpoint I've just never been able to convince myself to make such a huge change to my diet - but lab grown meat is literally having your cake and eating it too in that regard.

Hell I'd happilly pay 2x for a cut of meat that was lab grown instead of coming from an animal - and imagine how amazing you could make - for instance - a steak when you have 100% control over it's fat/muscle distribution/ratio. Making a Wagyu steak, vs a typical cut would be as simple as tweaking some settings

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[–] richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

I don't see it happening outside a reduced group of rich countries. They will probably license the method for a very high and unaffordable price.

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[–] KaiReeve@lemmy.world 68 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Free time.

As more and larger industries become automated we will have all the free time we can handle. What we do as a society today will determine whether that free time is spent pursuing our personal interests, or fighting over the last scraps of a dying planet.

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 66 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wish this were true, but frankly I don't buy it. In the last 50 years, thanks to automation and technology - productivity has nearly doubled, and yet people have to work more than ever to make ends meet or buy a home. Automation just means that the ultra rich can produce more with the same workforce. The global economy is built on the idea that GDP has to be constantly growing, and the more growth the better. Why let perfectly good workers sit idle when they could be making you more money?

Some industries get fully (or mostly) automated, sure and jobs dissapear from those industries, but new ones always pop up so that the folks at the top can continue profiting off the labor of those at the bottom. You think all the folks who used to have job titles like "Calculator" just retired at the age of 30 and enjoyed not having to work anymore? Nah, they were just forced to take new (often shittier, lower paying) jobs.

[–] KaiReeve@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

When an individual company looks to increase profit margins they can either increase the price of their product or reduce the cost it takes to produce it. For the vast majority of companies the primary cost for their product is labor. Employees require a living wage, health care, paid time off, and also create additional costs like payroll taxes and an entire HR department.

With automation you have a high initial cost, but it pays out exponentially over time. Sure you still have software costs, repairs, retrofits, and all that goes into maintaining your typically modern assembly line, but you don't have to worry about your robots suing you for sexual harassment or wrongful termination. You don't have to worry about busting unions or hazardous working conditions. You can fire your entire HR and payroll departments, too, which is even better for the bottom line.

Because it's so financially appealing to so many industries to cut out human labor, I consider it an inevitability. The rich will continue to do what's best for themselves and they don't really care if the rest of us all die off from starvation or war.

Now, that's not to say that it will all happen over night. Over the next half century it will likely be as you say where jobs just get more and more concentrated as they squeeze every dollar they can from each individual employee, but if you look far enough into the future we will all become unemployable. And when horses became unemployable, we didn't set aside 100 acres for them to live their best lives in. We made glue.

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[–] teamevil@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

We have been hearing that for 35 years... production has gone up exponentially whilst labor requirements dropped yet we work more and longer than ever.

[–] Barbacamanitu@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Everyone I know has to work multiple jobs and have roommates to be able to afford housing. What is this free time you speak of?

[–] fatzgebum@feddit.de 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

To archieve free time we have to reclaim our wealth from the rich. There is enough. We just have to redistribute.

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[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Grow an organ for you from your own cells. No rejection or drugs; your body accepts it as its own.

[–] Not_Reddit@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wait, rich people are doing that already? Seriously?

[–] wahming@monyet.cc 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not quite yet, but it looks to be on the near horizon

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[–] Barbacamanitu@lemmy.world 45 points 1 year ago (6 children)

No. The divide between the rich and everyone else is growing. We will be able to afford less and less.

[–] Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing? Not a single thing?

[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

I can barely afford this comment

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[–] haych@lemmy.one 41 points 1 year ago (16 children)

If electric cars follow this path and aren't replaced with something else like enviro-friendly fuels, electric cars.

I don't have an electric car, I dislike how many artificially limit things like speed, it shouldn't be a paid upgrade if the hardware is capable, the amount of tracking worries me too, like Tesla staff could see through your cabin cameras.

I'd rather have environment friendly fuels that work with older cars, even if that requires a new ECU+Fuel pump.

[–] fresh@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Outside of the US and Canada, electric bikes look to be the future instead of mainly electric cars. E-bikes are not just massively more environmentally friendly, they’re also radically reshaping city design to be more livable. I hope the future isn’t just a different kind of car. I hope, for the sake of the environment and society, it’s a world with fewer cars.

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[–] bstix@feddit.dk 10 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It's already past the point where only rich people have them. It's currently one of those things where it's actually more expensive to be poor.

I bought an EV because it's cheaper over a few years than getting the cheapest gasoline beater car. It's a bigger cost up front, but the total cost is smaller over few years.

If anything, only rich people will be able to afford keeping the gasoline cars. Similarly to todays vintage lead fueled classics.

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[–] silentknyght@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Solar panels on their homes.

[–] fidodo@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you mean the solar panel or the home?

[–] Sal@mander.xyz 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Full genome sequencing.

The price of sequencing continues to decrease as the technology evolves. I have already seen claims of under $1,000 for a full human genome. I haven't looked carefully into those claims, but I think we are around there. In some years full genomes will be so cheap to sequence that it will be routine. I want to buy one of those small Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencers in the future. I'll use it like a pokedex.

[–] papajohn@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Gene editing/therapy could become cheap in the future.

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Hopefully healthcare.

[–] ChickenZenphyre@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not here in Singapore. Cars went from affordable to being a luxury good. I wonder if its the same elsewhere.

[–] huginn@feddit.it 12 points 1 year ago

It should be like that in more places. Too much of America is built around the requirement to own and operate an expensive piece of heavy machinery just to participate in society. American cities should all go back to how dense they were prewar, when they were walkable and don't have interstates bulldozed through their downtowns.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago

Singapore is definitely special in that regards (in a good way, imo). I can't think of any other place going quite as hard on reducing cars.

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[–] Instigate@aussie.zone 18 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If the news about LK-99 has any element of truth to it, then superconductor-based technologies and maglev transport will become much more affordable in the future.

[–] Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But today supra conductor aren't something just for the rich. It's used for some specific application like MRI which benefit to the people needing them rather than the rich.

[–] DontAskAboutUpdog@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Good luck finding an MRI machine in countries like burkina farso. If you live in the west, you are rich, dawg.

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[–] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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