The Future: Breaking The World Systems Theory

3/14/2017

How will technological innovation affect, alter, disrupt, break, or preserve, the economic cycles initiated with the advent of the industrial revolution and capitalism?

Things to consider: A.I., Drones, Quantum Computing, 3-D printing, Graphene, Tesla and Space-X, Terra-forming, Bitcoins, Renewable Energy, Genetics, etc...
Continuity and Change Over Time
Due by midnight, 3.14

14 Comments

Konnor Kost

3/14/2017 03:52:02 pm

With new technological innovations, the economic cycles initiated with the advent of the industrial revolution will be altered as the need for humans and physical labor will be less needed and those who own capital and these ways for making product will generate more profit as you take out this human factor. The Industrial Revolution sought machines to help take the spending of labor and using machines to help do the work and be more efficient. With new technological innovation, we might not even need humans anymore to do make this product and with all these robotics and A.I. with drones, we are taking labor costs out. Sometime in the future we won't need humans at all to make this product. Drones send us product and carry information like a delivery man. We are helping to create more profit for these owners of the machines and robots like machines during the Industrial Revolution. Also with space, we see more opportunity when it comes to living and we can see space as an alternate situation for the future. This would destroy the periphery as they have no cheap labor but would still mainly only provide raw materials. These core areas would benefit as they have more opportunity and profit centers and still have all the capital. These core areas will only remain dominant in this theory and the periphery will only become poorer and will be more so inferior. These technological innovations only intensify the Industrial revolution's efficiency and less need for labor.

Nicholas B.

3/14/2017 05:19:46 pm

Technological innovation will affect and altar the economic cycles initiated with the advent of the industrial revolution and capitalism by replacing human workers with machines and bringing about cheaper and more efficient means of labor. This could mean drones used for package deliveries, A.I. such as self-driving cars, and more renewable energy sources like wind, water, and solar.

Iris T.

3/14/2017 05:21:53 pm

I feel like the technological innovations would have the same affect as those during the Industrial Revolution, just in bigger terms. For example, A.I., drones, and robotics cut out human labor just as it did during the IR, however it would cut out newer fields such as transportation because of drones or labor with A.I. So again we may end up with many jobless people and with the labor jobs gone it leaves society with only high professions, therefore putting more emphasis on education. Especially with the advancement on technology, making it more complex, only educated people would really have good paying jobs. This may put more funding into education and ensure more quality and reliability like the guilds did in the past. This also may lead to those who can not or did not recieve education to migrate to other countries that still have labor jobs. However in a way our reliance on technology could make us an unstable economy, because technoloy is a commodity and having our entire economic system be so reliant on technology could make us no different than Latin America countries who are dependent on the sale of one resource. If technology fails, like it often does, it could ruin many economic systems and markets.

Hana D.

3/14/2017 07:44:23 pm

If new technological innovations were to come about, i feel that it would alter the economic cycle initiated by the industrial revolution because there would be a whole new way of doing labor, A.l. drones, self-driving cars, renewable energy etc. This would affected those who used to work those jobs, making them without a job and soon fall into poverty. Although, for the owners of the factory or industry they will soon be able to collect profit from the, now less human labor, and allow their business to grow and become even more technologically advanced.

Julianna Jacinto

3/14/2017 08:22:27 pm

With new technological innovations, it would affect and disrupt the economic cycle initiated with the advent of Industrial Revolution and capitalism because it would cut-off manual labor that we have today. Even though it will make the our planet better by using renewable energy it would still affect people's jobs. Unemployment will also have an increase and with that Unemployment will lead to poverty; poverty will lead to homelessness, because as we have more advances the better the technology can do our jobs. However, with technology, it come with error and problems, which means one error or mistake in the production it will cause others to fail, and that may cause the fall of our economy.

Robert Donoghue

3/14/2017 09:25:01 pm

Any advancements in human society are done out of a demand. It is with that, and a bit of cynicism, that we can likely say capitalism will generate a second industrial revolution- so to say. It'll have the same goals as the original, increasing production and cutting costs in doing so. Robots supplemented with AI will take the jobs of not only manufacturers (as we are already seeing) but also services and even specialized fields. Kiosks take the place of cashiers and waitresses/waiters, AI make rhythms or even the music of musicians, and administration will be super-computed. For instance, here is a song composed entirely by AI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHZ_b05W7o . Thought artists would be sanctified? Nope: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/these-artworks-were-made-by-algorithms . What I'm driving at is, all of this is motivated to preserve capitalism. Periodic advancements will improve life, but at the aim of making money off of it in almost all cases. This enduring trend will not be broken by technology, it is what drives technology, and it will not allow itself to be challenged by it. As for world systems theory, why would it change under this? We have monopolized technology and as such, the future is firmly in our hands- for now at least.

Fatima O.

3/14/2017 09:29:15 pm

Technological innovation will preserve and allow the IR to continue. The IR was able to cut off the need for slave labor and required more trained workers to make the machinery and to run it as well. When we have technology such as drones, renewable energy, and genetic engineering we are able to make production more efficient which in turn cuts off the need for labor in those areas but will increase the need in more advanced jobs. In order to fulfill this need we will have to increase the education give in those fields of study. If we only continue to educate the core countries then that can be constricting to the improvement of our society since we will have less people fulfilling these high end jobs than if we were to provide more education the semi-periphery and periphery countries. If we were to provide the same amount of education to semi-periphery and periphery countries as we do to core countries I think we could have a chance to breaking the cycle the IR has created.

Kris Arpero

3/14/2017 10:50:53 pm

With technological innovation on the rise, we can see economic cycles altered greatly in that large scale business owners will see an exponential increase in profit from replacing all humans with more efficient and (sometimes) less expensive technology. One such event in which this is already happening is with the company Amazon and how they are close to launching a service in which GPS guided drones are flown to your very door step in a matter of hours.This can, in time, eliminate all People who work in the postal service, with the advent of drone delivery. Capitalism first started out as making humans work in a factory/large scale producing area to produce a large amount of product within a short amount of time, but with new innovations in technology, this can exponentially quicken the pace of work, how long work can be done, thus increasing the capital for the business owner and the shareholders. In extension, we are enslaving another species of nearly invincible workers who can work for nearly unlimited hours and at whatever speed is needed to meet demand for that certain product. This could cause a massive amount of people to become homeless and cause nationwide movements against these types of actions. In layman terms "no matter what, there will always be someone who is removed from an occupation for a more efficient being".

Saphyna Danh

3/14/2017 11:35:25 pm

Personally, I feel as though technological innovations will alter the economic cycles in that there will inevitably be a point where machines, such as robotics, will replace many, if not all human workers. Since there will be large amounts of free time, this will most likely lead to the view of those having any jobs in general to be seen as the ultimate low ranking class, which goes along side the already established view of laborers from the higher classes, but on a much larger scale.This would involve the possibility of creating either a highly populous upper class compared to a less populous lower class, and/or vise versa. There is the possibility of enlarging the lower class even further in that poverty, or at least financial instability could definitely play a role due to the lack of a need for human workers. Following the note of the upper class and having large amounts of free time, education could also still be seen as a luxury privilege, but there could also be an emphasis on higher levels of education in order to actually allow these technological innovations to occur. Due to the presence of these technological innovations, such as advanced machinery, and a lack of a need for human laborers, capitalism will definitely involve high amounts of profit. Overall, the increases in technological innovation could possibly lead to a more larger scale Industrial Revolution, such as having similar effects on social classes, working opportunities, and economic alterations/profits.

Erik Larson

3/14/2017 11:36:50 pm

I believe that technological innovations of the ever-nearing future will essentially break the economic cycles onset by the IR and capitalism for a simple reason. With the invention of complex machines, robots, and AI which could easily (and more efficiently) take jobs from the hands of human workers, eventually human labor would be rendered obsolete. If this were to occur, and there were no jobs left for us "useless fleshbags," then how would the public accumulate wealth? Robotic labor is free, and without wealth a consumer economy cannot consume! Therefor, the entirety of economics (that I know of) would be flung out the window along with all of my pride in human innovation.

Mikayla H.

3/15/2017 10:06:44 am

I think that technological innovations in that are coming around now and that will come around in the future will change the way our economic systems are looked at today. For example A.I and drones will cut labor in some areas and would create jobs in other areas since the demand of products will go up. These drones and A.I will allow for cheaper labor and the need for human workers will become useless effecting the way our economy works currently.

Crystal Guiao

3/15/2017 10:28:21 am

Technological innovation will affect and alter the economic cycles initiated with the advent of the industrial revolution and capitalism by giving less regard to the major economic sector in past civilized societies which was agriculture, and replacing that with the increased production through mining, manufacturing, and services. New technological innovations would thus replace labor taken on by human and animal power with nonrenewable resources such as coal, oil, and fossil fuels, which would thus give further rise in the coal and oil industries. However, with the further invention of machinery such as A.I., Drones, and 3D Printing that are breaking through in the technological industry, this increased use in machines or robots will eventually take over these occupations formerly taken on by humans, causing disruption among current economic cycles.

Angela L.

3/16/2017 07:08:36 am

The continuous invention of technology will preserve the economic cycle created by the IR. Using Reusable Resources as an example: possible do to technical innovation thus allowing more possible factories to be created functioning for the purposes for producing renewable resources. The need of human labor will always fit in the economic cycle but the only change will be the need of less numbers do to self functioning machines/robots with higher efficiency, but the need of human brains to create such process and designing the models. Along with capitalism the individual who owns the factories or controls the production of renewable resources will have the monopoly on the products instead the state which might cause some shifts of power since the government and state depends on the resources/ energy to survive. The same cycle can be performed for just any other invention or any other resources being produced.

Diane Rizo

3/16/2017 09:44:00 am

Technological innovations will preserve as well as alter the economic systems that were initiated by the Industial Revolution and Capitalism. Three D printing, graphene, AI drones, terraforming, and genetics will alter the economic cycles. If 3-D printing and AI drones became more developed it would deplete the needed amount of physical labor. For instance, if a capitalist could print a hamburger and deliver it in forty seconds without having to pay wages then chances are he or she would do it. Terraforming would completely change the economic cylce that has persisted because lets say it actually works and we find new territory, countries whom run with capitalism would have to accommodate their means of payment and production in order to still fain a good amount of profit. Quantum computing, tesla and space-x, renewable energy would preserve our current economic system. This is because all these things require a whole lot of labor to make sure these innovations function properly. Bitcoins will both alter and preserve our economic systems because it's a new currency so there will always have to be accomodations to make it fit in the new economic cycles. But it will preserve it because it will continue the trend of paying wages through actual money.

The Future: Breaking The World Systems Theory

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